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AN  INTRODUCTION  TO 
AMERICAN  HISTORY 

EUROPEAN 
BEGINNINGS 


M.ICE  M.ATKINSON 


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15  Ashburton  Place         Boston 

An  Introductory  to  Airerican  History:   Europsan 
Be^^innings,   Revised  Edition 
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Alice  M,   Atkinson 

Price     83  cents 


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AN  INTRODUCTION  TO 
AMERICAN  HISTORY 

EUROPEAN  BEGINNINGS 


BY 

ALICE  M.  ATKINSON 


REVISED  EDITION 


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BOSTON     •     NEW  YORK     •     CHICAGO     •     LONDON 
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COPYRIGHT,  1912,  BY  ALICE  M.  ATKINSON 

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GINN  AND  COMPANY  •  PRO- 
PRIETORS •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

This  volume  has  been  prepared  to  meet  the  need  for  a  short 
and  simple  introduction  to  the  history  of  the  United  States.  It  has 
followed  in  essential  particulars  the  recommendations  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Eight  of  the  American  Historical  Association  for  such  an 
introduction.  English  history  has  been  made  the  basis  of  the  nar- 
rative, wherever  possible,  in  the  belief  that  England  furnishes  for 
us  the  simplest  illustration  of  that  development  of  European  cultui*e 
which  should  form  the  background  of  an  intelligent  study  of  our 
own  history.  In  these  respects  the  present  volume  resembles  the 
author's  earlier  book,  ''  European  Beginnings  of  American  His- 
tory," from  which,  indeed,  much  of  the  material  has  been  drawn. 

A  few  words  of  explanation  and  suggestion  as  to  the  use  of  the 
book  may  not  be  amiss.  The  chapters  are  of  varying  length  and 
are  often  unusually  long  for  a  book  of  this  grade,  but  it  is  believed 
that  the  sections  will,  in  most  cases,  prove  suitable  for  a  lesson. 
The  questions  are  rarely  based  directly  upon  the  subject  matter  of 
the  chapter  to  which  they  are  appended  and  can  seldom  be  answered 
by  a  reference  to  it.  They  either  contain  a  back  reference,  or  are 
designed  to  bring  the  past  into  some  relation  with  our  life  of  to-day 
and  to  stimulate  outside  research  into  subjects  related  to  the  matter 
in  hand  ;  and  the  field  of  inquiry,  it  is  hoped,  will  include  not 
only  dictionaries,  encyclopedias,  geographies,  and  histories,  but  the 
more  lively  and  intimate  resource  of  ''grown-up"  information,  as 
well.  The  summaries  at  the  beginnings  of  the  chapters  contain 
the  subjects  upon  which  the  pupil  should  have  definite  knowledge. 

iii 

fi4^.  115 


IV 


INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


The  books  referred  to  will  be  found  appropriate  for  reading  in 
class  as  well  as  for  outside  reference.  Interesting  and  fuller  develop- 
ment of  many  subjects  may  also  be  found  in  Robinson's  "Introduc- 
tion to  the  History  of  Western  Europe,"  Cheyney's  "  Short  History 
of  England,"  and  Green's  "  Short  History  of  the  English  People." 

In  the  History  Teachers  Magazijic  for  May,  191 1,  many  valua- 
ble aids  to  the  teaching  of  ancient,  medieval,  and  English  history 
are  listed,  with  full  directions  for  procuring  them.  A  few  of  the 
fine  wall  pictures  catalogued  in  this  list  and  issued  by  Longmans, 
Arnold,  and  Koehler,  illustrating  events  in  English  history  and 
life  in  the  Middle  Ages,  would  well  repay  the  money  expended  on 
them,  for  the  sake  of  their  enlivening  effect  on  the  daily  lesson. 
Many  subjects  will  also  be  found  illustrated  in  the  inexpensive 
Perry  prints.  P'urther  interest  can  be  aroused  by  the  use  of 
Rausch's  excellent  models.  The  value  of  the  constant  use  of 
maps  is  too  well  known  to  need  emphasis  here.  P^or  illuminating 
suggestions  as  to  methods  of  history  teaching,  no  better  source 
could  be  found  than  the  pamphlet  already  referred  to,  ''The  Prob- 
lem of  Adapting  History  to  Children  in  the  Elementary  Schools," 
by  Professor  Henry  Johnson,  published  by  the  Columbia  Uni- 
versity Press,  1908. 

Both  the  author  and  the  editor.  Professor  James  Harvey  Robin- 
son, of  Columbia  University,  wish  to  express  here  their  great 
indebtedness  to  Professor  Johnson  for  his  kindness  in  reading  the 
manuscript  and  in  giving  them  the  benefit  of  his  long  and  distin- 
guished success  in  dealing  with  the  difficult  problem  of  history 
in  the  schools.  Grateful  acknowledgment  is  also  due  Dr.  E.  P. 
Cheyney,  Dr.  P.  Van  Ness  Myers,  Dr.  W.  J.  Long,  Dr.  T.  B. 
Lawler,  and  Dr.  W.  C.  Webster  for  permission  to  reproduce  maps 

and  illustrations. 

ALICE  M.  ATKINSON 
Crozet,  Virginia 


SECOND  PREFACE 

There  has  been  added  in  the  present  edition  some  new  material, 
comprising  a  considerable  expansion  of  the  section  on  the  Greeks, 
a  short  account  of  Charlemagne,  the  chapter  "  France  and  the 
New  World,"  and  additional  stories  of  the  Spanish  explorations 
in  America.  The  desirability  of  including  this  material  became 
apparent  with  the  use  of  the  book,  and  the  additions  made  are  in 
accordance  with  the  suggestions  of  a  number  of  school  authorities. 

For  much  of  the  new  material  special  acknowledgment  is  due 

Dr.   Charles  A.   Coulomb,   District  Superintendent,   Department 

of  Public  Education,  Philadelphia. 

ALICE  M.  ATKINSON 
Crozet,   Virginia 


CONTENTS 


CHAI'TKR  PAGE 

I.    OUR   DEBT   TO    ENGEAND 

1.  Immigrants i 

2.  J^ngland 8 

IE    ENCiEAND    ]]EFORE   THE    RO^E\N   CONQUEST 

3.  The  Men  of  the  vStone  Age 13 

4.  The  Ancient  Britons 17 

5.  How  the  Romans  came  to  Britain 20 

HE   THE   RO^E\NS  AND   GREEKS 

6.  The  Romans 23 

7.  The  Greeks 40 

8.  Alexander  the  Great 53 

IV.    THE  ROMANS    IN    BRITAIN 

9.  The  Roman  Conquest  of  Britain 59 

10.  Roman  Remains 65 

V.    THE   BREAK-UP   OF  THE   ROMAN   EMPIRE 

11.  The  Early  Germans 79 

12.  Last  Days  of  the  Roman  Empire 82 

13.  The  Germans  in  England 88 

VI.   THE  EAREY  CHRISTIANS  AND  THE  CONVERSION  OF  ENGLAND 

14.  The  Beginnings  of  Christianity 93 

15.  The  Conversion  of  England 96 

16.  Bede  and  the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict 99 

VII.   TWO   CiREAT   KINGS   OF  THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

17.  Charlemagne 104 

18.  King  Alfred  of  England 108 

vii 


viii     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VIII.    THE   VIKINGS 

19.  What  we  know  of  the  Vikings 115 

20.  Voyages  of  the  Vikings 123 

IX.    WILLIAM   THE   CONQUEROR 

21.  William  of  Normandy  and  Harold  of  England 129 

22.  Government  of  William  the  Conqueror 135 

23.  Feudalism 145 

X.   THE   CRUSADES   AND    RICHARD   THE   LION-HEARTED 

24.  The  FirstCrusade  and  the  Capture  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Christians  148 

25.  The  Third  Crusade  and  Richard  I  of  England 154 

26.  Knighthood 160 

XI.    KING  JOHN   AND   THE   CHARTER 

27.  John  and  Pope  Innocent  III 165 

28.  King  John  and  the  Magna  Charta 170 

XII.   COUNTRY   PEOPLE    IN   THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

29.  On  the  Manor 176 

30.  Life  in  the  Castles 184 

XIII.  THE   CHURCH    IN   THE   MIDDLE  AGES 

31.  The  Power  of  the  Church 194 

32.  Cathedrals 197 

33.  Monasteries 202 

34.  The  Friars 209 

XIV.  TOWNS   AND    BUSINESS   IN   THE   MIDDLE   AGES 

35.  The  Towns 213 

36.  The  Guilds       " 216 

37.  Markets  and  Fairs 219 

XV.   THE   FIRST   GREAT   DISCOVERIES 

38.  Marco  Polo 222 

39.  Henry  the  Navigator 226 


CONTENTS  ix 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

40.  Columbus  and  the  Discovery  of  America 228 

41.  How  John  Cabot  sailed  from  England  to  North  America     .     .  233 

42.  Vasco  da  Gama 236 

XVI.   THE    FIRST   VOYAGE   AKOUXD  THE   WORLD 

43.  IIow  Magellan  sailed  around   South  America  to  the  Pacific 

Ocean 242 

44.  IIow  Magellan's  Fleet  crossed  the  Pacific  Ocean 246 

XVII.    THE    NEW  WORLD 

45.  Conquest  of  Mexico 251 

46.  The  Progress  of  Discovery 258 

XVI II.   FRANCE   AND   THE   NEW  WORLD 

47.  Francis  I  of  France  and  Emperor  Charles  V  of  Spain     .     .     .  270 

48.  Joan  of  Arc 272 

49.  The  French  in  America 276 

XIX.    QUEEN   ELIZABETH    OF   ENGLAND 

50.  Henry  VIII 288 

51.  Queen  Elizabeth 290 

XX.    ELIZABETH   AND   PHILIP    II 

52.  Philip  IT  of  Spain  and  the  Netherlands 299 

53.  Philip  and  England 303 

XXI.    THE   ELIZABETHAN    ACiE 

54.  English  Seamen 309 

55.  The  End  of  P^lizabeth's  Reign 320 

XXII.    DISCOVERIES   AND   INVENTIONS 329 

INDEX   AND   PRONOUNCING   VOCABULARY 339 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The  Boyhood  of  Raleigh  (from  the  painting  by  Millais)       ....    Frontispiece 

EngHsh  and  Indians  meeting  in  1607 3 

New  York  City  in  1910,  from  the  Harbor  (full  page) 5 

Wells  Cathedral,  England 10 

English  Village  Street       11 

Fist  Hatchet  of  the  Stone-Age  Men 14 

Drawings  found  on  the  Walls  of  Caves 15 

Stonehenge  on  Salisbury  Plain,  England 16 

Early  British  Pottery 18 

Ancient  Roman  Vessels 20 

Roman  Soldiers 21 

A  Roman  Toga 25 

Hannibal's  Army  crossing  the  Rhone 29 

Julius  Caesar 33 

Augustus 35 

Column  of  the  Roman  Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius 36 

Head  of  Athena  (full  page) 39 

The  Acropolis  of  Athens  as  it  probably  appeared  in  Ancient  Times  (full  page)  47 

Upper  Part  of  the  Three  Styles  of  (}reek  Pillars 48 

Caractacus  before  the  Roman  Emperor 61 

Old  Roman  Road  in  England 64 

Old  Roman  Aqueduct  at  Nimes,  France 66 

Remains  of  Old  Roman  Baths,  at  Bath,  England 69 

Part  of  an  Ancient  Roman  House  found  in  Pompeii  (full  page)       70 

Roman  Mosaic  from  Pompeii 71 

Old  Roman  Spoons,  Bracelets,  Keys,  Hairpins,  and  Sandals  found  in  England  73 

Old  Roman  Book       74 

Roman  Altar  found  in  England 76 

Old  Roman  Bridge  at  Alcantara,  Spain 81 

Arch  of  Constantine  at  Rome,  as  it  appears  To-day 84 

The  Maison  Carree,  a  Roman  Temple  still  standing  in  Nimes,  France    ...  87 

St.  Martin's  Church,  Canterbury,  built  on  the  Site  of  Queen  Bertha's  Chapel  97 

xi 


xii  INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

PAGE 

Monastery  at  Vallombrosa,  Italy loi 

Cloisters  of  an  Italian  Monastery 102 

Old  Saxon  Church  —  the  Only  Complete  One  surviving no 

Viking  Horse  Collar 117 

Viking  Sword 118 

A  Runic  Stone no 

A  Fiord  in  Norway  (full  page) 121 

A  Viking  Ship 124 

A  Norwegian  Waterfall 126 

William  the  Conqueror  granting  the  Town  Charter  to  the  Citizens  of  London 

(from  the  painting  by  Lucas)  (full  page)       133 

A  Norman  Church  in  Iffley,  England 136 

The  Doomsday  Book 130 

Scenes  from  the  Bayeux  Tapestry       140 

Norman  Stair,  Canterbury 143 

Vassal  doing  Homage  to  his  Lord       146 

Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  in  Jerusalem       149 

Tomb  of  a  Crusader ic2 

King  Richard  landing  in  Palestine  (full  page) 157 

The  Knight's  Vigil  (from  the  painting  by  Pettie) 162 

Coat  of  Arms  of  King  Richard  I 163 

Old  English  Church 167 

Old  Forest  in  England  —  Piurnham  Beeches  (full  page) 173 

A  State  Carriage  of  the  Fourteenth  Century 177 

English  Manor  House  of  the  Thirteenth  Century       179 

An  English  Village 181 

A  Barn  of  the  Thirteenth  Century 182 

Warwick  Castle  from  the  Avon  River  (full  page) 185 

A  Room  in  the  Keep  of  Craigmillar  Castle 186 

Ladies'  Costumes  in  the  Twelfth,  Thirteenth,  and  Fourteenth  Centuries       .  187 

Gentleman  with  Hawk  (from  an  old  manuscript) 189 

A  Knight  in  Armor 191 

Archbishop's  Dress 195 

Canterbury  Cathedral,  P2ngland 198 

The  Choir  of  Wells  Cathedral,  England 199 

Gloucester  Cathedral  and  Cloisters,  England  (full  page) 201 

Gargoyles 202 

A  School  Scene  in  the  Twelfth  Century  (from  an  old  manuscript)     ....  203 

A  Monastery  Kitchen,  Marienburg,  Germany 205 

The  Manuscript  Book  (after  the  painting  by  John  W.  Alexander)      ....  206 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

pa(;e 

Illuminated  Manuscript  (from  the  Wycliffe  Bible  in  the  British  Museum)     .  207 

Nuns  in  Choir  (from  an  old  manuscript) 20S 

Cloisters  of  a  Monastery  in  Rome  (full  page) 211 

A  Gate  in  the  Old  Town  Wall,  Southampton,  England 214 

Marco  Polo 223 

The  Return  of  the  Polos 224 

Departure  of  Columbus -231 

A  Venetian  Galley 234 

Ferdinand  Magellan 243 

The  Strait  of  Magellan 245 

Magellan's  Ship  the  Victoria 249 

Emperor  Charles  V  (from  a  painting  by  Titian)  (full  page) 253 

Temple  Pyramid  in  Mexico 256 

A  Spanish  Galleon 260 

Balboa  discovers  the  Pacific 261 

Coronado  discovers  the  Grand  Cafion  of  the  Colorado       265 

The  Mission  at  Santa  Barbara,  California 267 

Corridor  of  Santa  Barbara  Mission 268 

Francis  I 271 

Joan  of  Arc  (from  the  statue  by  Chapu) 273 

Driving  the  French  Captives  to  Fort  St.  Augustine 278 

La  Salle  taking  possession  of  Louisiana 283 

Lead  Plate  buried  by  a  French  Explorer  claiming  Possession  of  the  Land 

for  France 285 

The  Ruins  of  Melrose  Abbey 289 

Pope  Julius  II  (1441-1513)  (from  a  painting  by  Raphael)  (full  page)     .     .     ,  291 

Queen  Elizabeth 292 

Queen  Elizabeth's  Autograph 293 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots 296 

Philip  II  (from  a  painting  by  Titian) 300 

English  Seaman's  Home  at  Clovelly 311 

Houses  of  Parliament,  London 314 

English  Country  House  built  in  the  Elizabethan  Age  (full  page) 323 

Shakspere's  Home .  324 

Ancient  Roman  Lamp 331 

Early  Cannon 335 

The  First  Printing  Press  (from  the  painting  by  John  W.  Alexander  in  the 

Congressional  Library) 336 

Early  Printing  Press '^^yj 


LIST    OF    MAPS 

PAGE 

Europe  in  1914 16' 

The  Roman  Empire  about  100  a.d 33 

Dominions  of  William  the  Conqueror 137 

Europe  during  the  Crusades 148 

The  Voyages  of  Discovery 244 

Spanish  Explorations 263 

Joliet's  Map  (from  Winsor's  "  Cartier  to  Frontenac  ") 279 

French  Explorations  on  the  Great  Lake's  and  the  Mississippi 281 

The  World 316 


LIST  OF  REFERENCE   BOOKS 

AxDERSON,  R.  B.    Norse  Mythology.    S.  C.  Griggs  &  Co. 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle.    Edited  by  J.  A.  Giles.    Bohn  Library. 

Archer  and  Kingsley.    The  Crusades  (Story  of  Nations).    G.  P.  Putnam's 

wSons. 
Bates,  K.  L.,  and  Coman,  K.    English  History  Told  by  English  Poets.    The 

Macmillan  Company. 
BoTSP^ORD,  G.  W.    The  Story  of  Rome  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans  Tell  It. 

The  Macmillan  Company. 
Bourxe.    Spain  in  America. 

Brooks,  Noam.    The  Story  of  Marco  Polo.    The  Century  Co. 
BuLFTXCH.    Legends  of  Charlemagne.    Everyman's  Library. 
Bulfixch.  The  Age  of  Fable.    Everyman's  Library. 
BuRXS,  E.  E.    The  Story  of  Great  Inventions.    Harper  &  Brothers. 
Carp>exter,  E.  J.    Long  Ago  in  Greece.    Little,  Brown  and  Company. 
Cheyxey,  E.  p.    Readings  in  English  History.    Ginn  and  Company. 
Eixhard.     Life   of   Charlemagne.     Translated    and   edited   by  A.  J,   (irant. 

J.  W.  Luce  &  Co. 
Fiske.    Discovery  of  America. 

Hall,  J.    Viking  Tales.    Rand  McNally  &  Company. 
HiGGixsox,   T.  \V.     Young    Folks'   Book   of   American    Explorers.     Lee   & 

Shepard. 
KiPLixG.    Puck  of  Pook's  Hill. 

Lawler.    The  Story  of  Columbus  and  Magellan.    Ginn  and  Company. 
Litde  Flowers  of  St.  Francis.    Temple  Classics. 
Marie,  H.  W.    Norse  Stories.    Rand  McNally  &  Company. 
Macaulay.    Lays  of  Ancient  Rome.    Ginn  and  Company. 
Mahaffy.     Greek  Antiquities   (History   Primers).     Edited  by  J.   R.  (ireen. 

The  Macmillan  Company. 


xvi       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Mo  WRY.    American  Inventions  and  Inventors. 

Old  South  Leaflets.    7  vols.    D.  C.  Heath  &  Co. 

Parkman.    Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World. 

Park.max.    La  Salle  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Great  West, 

Plutarch.    Vol.    I,   Tales  of  the  Greeks;   Vol.   II,  Tales  of  the  Romans. 

Edited  by  F.  J.  Gould.    Harper  &  Brothers. 
Prescott.    Conquest  of  Peru. 
PvLE,  Howard.    Robin  Hood. 

RoBixsox,  J.  H.    Readings  in  European  History.    2  vols.    Ginn  and  Company. 
Shakespeare.    Plays. 

Shaw,  C.  D.    Stories  of  the  Ancient  Greeks.    Ginn  and  Company. 
Thwaites.    France  in  America. 


DATES  OF  IMPORTANT  HISTORICAL  EVENTS 
REFERRED  TO   IN  THIS   BOOK 


c.  TOGO  (about).    Beginnings  of  Greek  history. 

753.    Year   in  which,   as   the    Romans   beHeved,    Romulus   and   Remus 

founded  Rome. 
509.    Year  in  which,   as   the  Romans  believed,   the  first  consuls  were 

elected  after  the  expulsion  of  Tarquin,  their  last  king. 
490-479,    Struggles  between  Greece  and  I'ersia. 
450-350.    Time  of  great  Greek  artists,  builders,  poets,  historians,  orators, 

and  philosophers. 
323.    Alexander  the  (ireat  completes  his  conquests. 
272.    Romans  complete  the  conquest  of  Italy  and  become  acquainted  with 

(jreek  civilization, 
264.    I^eginning  of  the  Punic  Wars. 
146.    Destruction  of  Carthage  by  the  Romans. 
146.    Corinth  destroyed,  and  (Greece  becomes  a  Roman  province. 
55.    Julius  Cassar  invades  Britain, 

44.    Assassination  of  Cciesar  in  the  Senate  House  at  Rome. 
31.    Octavius  assumes  the  title  of  Augustus  and  is  acknowledged  ruler 
of  Rome. 
A.i:).  9.    Germans  annihilate  three  ]<oman  legions  which  had  invaded  their 
country. 
43.    Invasion  of  Britain  under  Claudius. 
64.    First  persecution  of  the  Christians  in  Rome. 
100.    The  Roman   Empire  at  its  greatest  extent.     Rome  adorned  with 

splendid  buildings, 
330.    Founding  of   Constantinople  by   Constantine  the  Great,   the  first 

Christian  emperor. 
378.    Goths  setde  in  a  Roman  province  and  defeat  the  Roman  legions 

in  the  batde  of  Adrianople. 
410.    Sack  of  Rome  by  Alaric,  the  Goth. 
R  xvii 


xviii      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


A.  D.  449.    Invasion   of   Britain   by   Saxons   after   the   Romans   had  left  the 
country. 
597.    St.  Augustine  sent  by  Pope  Gregory  the  Great  to  introduce  Chris- 
tianity into  England. 
771.    Charlemagne  becomes  emperor. 
871.    Alfred  the  (ireat  becomes  king  of  England. 

912.    Northmen  estabhsh   themselves  in   a  district  of   France  which  is 
called  Normandy  after  them. 

1 01 6.    Canute,  the  Dane,  becomes  king  of  England. 

1066.  William  of  Normandy  invades  England  and  defeats  the  English  at 
the  battle  of  Hastings. 

1095.  Pope  Urban  rouses  people  to  go  on  the  First  Crusade  to  the  Holy 
Land  to  recapture  Jerusalem  from  the  Turks. 

1099.  Jerusalem  is  taken  by  the  Crusaders,  and  Godfrey  of  Bouillon  is 
elected  king. 

1 190.  Richard  the  Lion-Hearted,  king  of  England,  Philip  Augustus  of 
France,  and  Frederick  Barbarossa  of  Germany  lead  the  Third 
Crusade. 

1 100-1300.  Time  of  troubadours  and  tournaments,  of  the  building  of 
castles  and  cathedrals,  of  the  founding  of  universities  and  the 
growth  of  towns. 

1 210.  Pope  Innocent  HI  gives  his  approval  to  St.  Francis  and  his  fol- 
lowers, who  later  developed  into  the  Franciscan  order  of  Mendicant 
Friars.    (Four  years  later  the  Dominican  order  was  founded.) 

1 21  5.    Magna  Charta  signed  at  Runnymede  by  King  John. 

1270.  Marco  Polo,  the  Venetian,  sets  out  to  travel  through  Asia  to  the 
court  of  Kublai  Khan,  in  Cathay  (China). 

1429.    Joan  of  Arc  and  the  French  victorious  at  Orleans. 

1453.  The  Turks  capture  Constantinople,  and  the  Eastern  Roman  Empire 
comes  to  an  end. 

1456.    First  book  (the  Bible)  printed  with  movable  types. 

1487.    Diaz,  the  Portuguese,  rounds  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

1492.    Discovery  of  America  by  Columbus. 

1498.    Vasco  da  (^ama  finds  the  eastern  sea  route  to  India. 

1509.    Henry  VIII  becomes  king  of  England. 

I  5  I  3.    Balboa  discovers  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

I  5  1 9.    Charles  V  elected  emperor. 


DATES  OF  IMPORTANT  HISTORICAL  EVENTS    xix 

A.  D.  151 9.  Conquest  of  Mexico  begun  by  Cortes. 

1520.  Martin  Luther  revolts  against  the  Pope. 

1522.  Magellan  and  the  first  circumnavigation  of  the  globe. 

1 53 1.  Pizarro  begins  conquest  of  Peru. 

1542.  De  Soto  discovers  the  Mississippi  River. 

1558.  Elizabeth  becomes  queen  of  England. 

1559.  Queen  Elizabeth  establishes  Protestantism  in  England. 

1564.  Birth  of  Shakespeare. 

1565.  Spanish  build  Fort  St.  Augustine. 

1568.    Beginning   of    revolt   of    the    Netherlands    against    Spain   under 

William  of  Orange. 
1577.    Sir  Francis  Drake  sets  out  on  his  voyage  around  the  globe. 
1588.    The  Spanish  Armada  destroyed. 
1 600-1  700.    Time  of  the  French  missionaries  and  explorers  in   North 

America — Champlain,  Marquette,  Hennepin,  Johet,  and  La  Salle. 
1603.    Death  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
1607.    Colony  of  Jamestown  estabhshed  in  Virginia. 


AN   INTRODUCTION  TO 
AMERICAN   HISTORY 

EUROPEAN   BEGINNINGS 
CHAPTER  I 

OUR  DEBT  TO  ENGLAND 

How  the  first  English  settlers  arrived  in  North  America.  Different  conditions 
which  immigrants  find  to-day.  How  English  habits  and  institutions  came  to 
prevail  over  the  United  States.     Description  of  England  as  it  appears  to-day 

Section  i.   Immigrants 

Introduction.  Less  than  four  hundred  years  ago  the  vast 
country  which  is  now  called  the  United  States  was  a  wilder- 
ness of  forests  and  prairies,  of  mountains,  deserts,  and 
plains.  There  were  no  cities  or  towns  or  farms ;  no  high- 
ways or  even  country  roads.  Where  these  now  are,  were 
stretches  of  pathless  woods  and  prairies.  No  white  men  at 
all  lived  in  this  wilderness.  Our  great  land,  that  extends 
nearly  three  thousand  miles  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean  and  is  to-day  swarming  with  millions  of  English- 
speaking  people,  was  then  inhabited  only  by  Indians. 

The  first  settlers.  In  1607  a  party  of  Englishmen  set  sail 
for  this  vast  and  lonely  wilderness,  and,  landing  on  the 
shores  of  what  is  now  Virginia,  began  a  little  settlement 


2        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

there.  They  called  their  colony  Jamestown  in  honor  of 
the  English  king,  James  I.  This  was  the  first  permanent 
English  settlement  on  American  soil.  It  would  probably 
have  been  the  last  if  the  English  colonists  had  not  been  so 
strong  and  courageous,  for  the  hardships  and  discourage- 
ments of  the  first  year  in  the  new  country  were  terrible. 

Almost  every  year,  however,  saw  more  Englishmen 
coming  over  to  America.  Little  towns  grew  up,  and  farms 
and  plantations  were  tilled  and  planted  where  forests  had 
been.  But  the  colonists  had  to  send  back  to  the  mother 
country  for  their  furniture,  clocks,  watches,  dishes,  knives, 
tea,  sugar,  hats,  and  materials  for  clothing  and  shoes  — 
for  almost  all  their  conveniences  and  comforts,  in  fact. 
They  tried  to  live  as  far  as  possible  in  the  way  they  had 
lived  in  England,  and  they  regarded  themselves  as  subjects 
of  the  English  king  just  as  if  they  had  stayed  at  home. 

For  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  these  English  settle- 
ments grew  and  prospered  on  American  soil.  With  the 
exception  of  a  few  Dutch  in  New  York,  some  Swedes  in 
Delaware,  and  the  Spaniards  in  Florida,  the  whole  eastern 
border  of  the  country  was  English. 

As  the  settlements  increased  in  size  and  prosperity, 
they  began  to  grow  restless  under  English  rule  and  to 
feel  that  the  home  government  w^as  unjust  and  severe 
and  finally  no  longer  to  be  endured.  It  was  this  feeling 
that  brought  about  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in 
1776  and  the   Revolutionary  War.    At  the  end  of  the 


OUR  DP:BT  to  ENGLAND  3 

war  the  colonies  found  themselves  a  free  people,  subject 
no  longer  to  England.  Then  began  the  history  of  the  re- 
public of  the  United  States  —  a  history  that  is  not  yet 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  old. 

After  the  establishing  of  the  republic,  immigrants  con- 
tinued  to  come    to   America   from    many  countries    of 


English  and  Indians  meeting  in  1607 

Europe,  —  from  Ireland,  Germany,  Italy,  —  from  every 
country  whose  citizens  washed  greater  freedom  or  better 
chances  of  earning  a  living.  And  this  stream  of  immi- 
grants came  on  and  on  in  ever-increasing  numbers  from 
almost  every  country  of  the  Old  World.-^ 


^  This  stream  of  immigration 


iterrupted  only  by  the  Great  War. 


4         INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Arrival  of  immigrants.  Let  us  stop  for  a  moment  to  pic- 
ture the  arrival  of  the  earhest  immigrants  from  England 
and  compare  it  with  that  of  the  immigrants  of  to-day.  It 
was  in  1607,  as  we  said,  that  the  little  band  of  English- 
men sailed  up  the  James  River  in  search  of  a  home.  How 
small  the  three  little  ships  were  that  brought  them  — 
none  of  them  larger  than  a  good-sized  fishing  vessel ! 
And  the  men  that  came  in  them,  how  few  they  were, 
compared  with  the  swarms  of  immigrants  that  are  now 
every  day  crowding  to  our  shores !  On  these  three  little 
ships  there  were  in  all  only  one  hundred  five  persons. 
When  they  landed  on  the  spot  where  Jamestown  now  is, 
there  was  nothing  to  be  seen  about  them  but  woods  and 
water  stretching  away  on  every  side.  They  had  to  provide 
their  own  shelter  on  these  lonely  shores,  first  clearing 
the  thick  forest  to  make  a  place  for  their  homes.  At  the 
same  time  they  had  to  defend  themselves  from  the  Indian 
arrows  that  constantly  threatened  their  lives,  and  from  the 
wild  animals  that  lived  all  about  them.  Often  they  had 
to  eat  nuts  and  berries  to  keep  from  starving. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  immigrants  of  to-day  and  see 
how  differently  they  are  received  into  our  country.  The 
greater  number  of  them  come  to  New  York,  so  we  will 
visit  the  harbor  there  to  watch  their  arrival. 

The  enormous  size  of  the  ships  and  the  great  crowds 
that  pour  out  of  them  are  the  first  things  that  mark  the 
difference  between  the  early  days  and  the  present  time. 


u 


6         INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

The  vessels  that  bring  immigrants  now  are  huge  steam- 
ships as  long  as  three  or  four  ordinary  city  blocks.  They 
hold  as  many  people  as  several  large  hotels.  Instead  of 
coming  over  once  in  six  months  or  a  year,  as  the  sailing 
vessels  did  three  hundred  years  ago,  they  arrive  almost 
every  day.  The  immigrants  that  swarm  down  the  gang- 
planks of  the  ship,  loaded  with  trunks  and  boxes  and 
bundles,  number  sometimes  five  or  six  thousand  in  a  day. 

This  great  crowd  of  newcomers  to  our  shores  are  not 
left  free  to  go  ashore  with  the  other  passengers.  They 
are  transported  in  boats  to  Ellis  Island,  in  New  York 
harbor,  where  they  have  to  be  carefully  examined  in 
buildings  that  have  been  provided  for  this  purpose. 

The  doctors  and  inspectors  who  examine  them  must 
determine  whether  they  are  free  from  disease  and  able  to 
support  themselves,  so  that  only  those  may  be  allowed  to 
come  in  who  are  likely  to  be  a  help,  not  a  hindrance, 
to  our  country.  There  seems  to  be  an  endless  stream  of 
them  as  they  pass  up  the  wide  stairs  of  the  buildings  on 
their  way  to  inspection.  As  they  go  every  man  takes  off 
his  cap,  according  to  order,  to  salute  the  American  flag 
that  hangs  above  his  head.  Those  who  pass  examination 
are  allowed  to  leave  the  island  and  are  helped  to  make 
their  way  to  wherever  they  wish  to  go.  The  others  are 
sent  back  to  their  own  country. 

How  the  United  States  still  resembles  England.  Let  us 
suppose   that  among   these   new  arrivals   there  were  a 


OUR  DEBT  TO   ENGLAND  7 

Frenchman,  an  Italian,  an  Englishman,  a  Russian,  and  a 
German.  Which  one  of  them  would  feel  most  at  home 
among  us  ?    It  would  certainly  be  the  Englishman. 

In  the  first  place,  an  Englishman  understands  our 
language  and  can  read  all  the  signs,  newspapers,  and 
magazines  as  soon  as  he  steps  ashore.  Then  the  names 
of  many  places  are  familiar  to  him  and  remind  him  of 
England,  such  as  New  York,  New  England,  New 
Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  as  well  as  Boston,  Worcester, 
Greenwich,  New  London,  Cambridge,  and  many  other 
towns  which  are  named  after  English  ones. 

Moreover,  he  finds  the  w^ay  we  Americans  live,  and 
the  things  we  eat  and  wear,  and  the  sort  of  amusements 
and  sports  we  enjoy,  much  like  what  he  has  been  used  to 
in  his  home  in  England.  On  the  other  hand,  immigrants 
from  other  countries  find  things  different  from  what  they 
w^ere  used  to,  and  they  try  for  a  w^iile  to  live  as  far  as 
possible  in  the  same  way  in  which  they  lived  in  Italy  or 
Russia  or  Germany.  Little  by  little,  however,  as  they 
become  American  citizens  and  grow  used  to  the  ways  of 
the  Americans  about  them,  they  give  up  the  customs 
they  brought  over  from  their  own  countries.  They  change 
more  and  more  to  our  manner  of  living,  and  their  chil- 
dren can  scarcely  be  distinguished  from  the  children  born 
of  American  parents. 

Lastly,  the  Englishman  finds  that  the  works  of  the 
great    English   writers,   living   and    dead,   are   read   and 


8         INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

treasured  here  in  the  United  States  just  as  they  are  in 
England.  And  with  the  best  of  reasons,  for  do  they  not, 
most  of  them,  belong  to  us,  just  as  they  do  to  the  English  ? 
Shakespeare  is  ours,  and  Chaucer  and  Milton,  for  the 
forefathers  of  many  of  us  were  English  people  when 
these  poets  were  writing  their  immortal  plays  and  poems. 
Those  English  authors,  too,  who  have  lived  and  written 
since  the  time  when  our  country  became  independent  of 
England  give  us  as  much  pleasure  as  our  own  American 
writers.  When  we  read  "  Alice  in  Wonderland,"  or  "  Tom 
Brown  at  Rugby,"  or  the  "Jungle  Book,"  we  do  not  stop 
to  think  whether  it  was  written  by  an  Englishman  or  an 
American.  The  books  of  each  country  belong  to  both, 
and  they  give  us  a  pleasure  that  we  cannot  get  from  the 
writers  of  any  other  country. 

It  is  no  wonder,  then,  since  our  native  land  is  still 
English  in  the  many  ways  that  we  have  seen,  and  since 
it  was  English  so  long  a  time  before  it  became  the 
United  States,  that  we  sometimes  call  England  the 
"  mother  country,"  and  feel  that,  of  all  the  countries  across 
the  sea,  we  have  a  very  special  kinship  with  that  one. 

Section  2.    England 

Perhaps  the  first  thing  to  be  realized  about  this  little 
island  from  which  our  country  sprang,  is  how  small  it 
really  is.  If  we  compare  England  with  our  own  states, 
we  shall  find  it  to  be  about   the  size  of  Illinois;    and 


OUR  DEBT  TO   ENGLAND  9 

the  whole  United  States,  of  which  it  is  the  parent,  is 
almost  seventy-five  times  as  large  —  a  small  country, 
indeed,  to  be  the  mother  of  so  large  a  republic. 

West  of  England  lies  the  mountainous  little  country 
of  Wales,  w^hich  was  conquered  by  the  English  kings 
some  six  hundred  years  ago.  To  the  north  are  the  moun- 
tains, moors,  and  lakes  of  Scotland.  England,  Wales,  and 
Scotland  together  form  the  island  called  Great  Britain. 
Separated  from  England  by  a  strip  of  sea  is  Ireland  — 
''  Erin's  green  isle."  These  two  islands,  with  many 
smaller  ones  along  the  coast,  are  known  as  the  British 
Isles,  or  the  United  Kingdom. 

The  climate  of  England  is  a  pleasant  one,  mild  in 
winter  and  not  too  warm  in  the  summer.  They  have 
many  more  rainy  days  there  than  we  have,  and  less  sun- 
shine than  w^e  are  used  to,  but  it  is  the  frequent  mists 
and  rains  that  make  the  island  so  fresh  and  green.  It  is 
a  very  attractive  country,  and  although  it  is  not  large,  it 
has  a  great  variety  of  lovely  scenery  whose  beauty  is 
increased  by  picturesque  villages  and  ivy-covered  stone 
churches,  by  stately  houses,  fine  old  castles,  and  the 
spires  and  towers  of  splendid  cathedrals. 

Appearance  of  England.  The  first  sight  that  meets  the 
traveler's  view  as  he  approaches  England  from  the  south 
is  the  line  of  high  white  chalk  cliffs  that  rise  far  above  the 
sea  and  gleam  for  many  miles  against  the  blue  waters 
of  the  Channel.     It  is  said  that  it  was  because  of  the 


lo       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

whiteness  of  these  cHffs  that  England  in  ancient  times 
was  given  the  name  of  Albion  —  a  name  supposed 
to  come  from  the  Latin  word  albus,  meaning  "  white." 
Writers  often  use  it,  thinking  it  more  poetic  than 
the  word  "  England."  Shakespeare  speaks  of  "  great 
Albion's  queen "  and  the  "  nook-shotten  isle  of  Albion." 


Wells  Cathedral,  England 


After  the  traveler  lands  on  the  island  and  leaves  the 
chalk  cliffs  behind  him,  he  comes  to  the  soft  rolling  hills, 
called  downs,  that  are  peculiar  to  southern  England. 
They  are  low  hills  covered  with  grass  and  are  very 
lovely  when  cloud  shadows  pass  over  their  slopes.  The 
region  of  the  downs  extends  over  all  the  southeastern 


OUR  DEBT  TO   ENGLAND 


II 


part  of  England  —  almost  two  thirds  of  the  whole 
country.  The  rest  is  made  up  of  a  central  plain  and  a 
mountainous  region  beyond. 

In  this  plain  the  traveler  will  find  much  to  charm  and 
delight    him.     There    are    little    villages    with    thatched 


English  Village  Street 


cottages  and  gardens  gay  wath  geraniums  and  roses, 
ancient  castles  with  gray  towers  rising  above  the  tops  of 
thick  green  trees,  and  beautiful  old  country  houses  set  in 
wide  parks  full  of  oak  and  beech  trees.  On  every  hand 
he  will  see  trees  and  fields  and  hedges,  and  gentle  rivers 
flowing  between  the  greenest  of  meadows  and  shaded  by 


12       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

masses  of  green  leaves.  If  it  were  not  for  the  mining 
districts  and  the  smoky  manufacturing  cities  that  have 
grown  up  in  recent  times,  the  central  part  of  England 
would  be  the  softest  and  most  smiling  country  in  the  world. 
But  it  is  a  pleasure  to  pass  from  this  plain,  green  and 
luxuriant  as  it  is,  with  its  fields  and  hedgerows,  and  find 
one's  self  in  the  cool,  clear,  mountain  district  to  the  north. 
There  the  peaks,  mist-covered,  the  mountain  torrents 
that  fall  from  their  heights,  and  the  shining  lakes  that  lie 
in  the  hollows  between,  all  give  the  traveler  great  delight. 
And  if  he  has  the  good  fortune  to  be  in  this  country 
in  the  month  of  August,  he  will  have  still  further  delight 
in  seeing  the  hills  covered  with  purple  heather  and  yellow 
gorse  in  full  flower.  These  are  some  of  the  many  beauties 
of  England  that  make  it  seem  not  too  high  praise  to  call 
her  a  "  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea." 

Questions,  l.  What  do  you  know  about  the  American  Indians  ?  2.  What 
is  the  difference  between  an  immigrant  and  an  emigrant  ?  3.  What  did 
you  know  about  England  before  you  read  this  chapter? 


CHAPTER   II 

ENGLAND  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  CONQUEST 

How  the  earliest  peoples  of  whom  we  have  any  traces  seem  to  have  lived.    The 

Ice  Age.   The  Stone  Age.   The  use  of  bronze.    Iron,    How  we  learn  about  these 

earliest  peoples.    Fytheas.    The  manners,  customs,  and  beliefs  of  the  Britons. 

Invasion  of  Britain  by  Juhus  Caesar 

Section  3.   The  Men  of  the  Stone  Age 

This  island  of  England,  so  much  of  whose  history  is 
really  ours,  lies  so  close  to  Europe  that  it  almost  seems  to 
be  a  part  of  it.  Where  the  water  is  narrowest  one  can  see 
across  from  France  to  England.  Many  thousands  of 
years  ago  England  was  actually  attached  to  the  Con- 
tinent by  a  strip  of  land.  Later  this  land  sank  gradually 
until  the  sea  flowed  in  and  covered  it,  forming  the  Eng- 
lish Channel. 

We  have  good  reason  to  believe  that  before  the  two 
countries  were  divided  the  same  kind  of  men  dwelt  in 
both.  They  were  savages  and  lived  much  like  animals, 
although  they  could  use  sticks  to  kill  game  and  to 
defend  themselves,  instead  of  having  to  depend  upon 
teeth  and  claws,  and  could  make  a  fire  to  warm  them- 
selves and  cook  their  food.  They  also  used  bits  of  flint 
to  cut  sticks  and  poles,  to  carve  their  meat,  and  to  scrape 

^  13 


14       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


the  skins  which  they  used  for  garments  or  for  covering 
their  huts. 

Fist  hatchets.  For  a  long  time  the  only  tool  they  had 
was  the  flint  which  they  picked  up.  Later  they  learned 
to  take  a  lump  of  flint  and  knock  off  chips  with  another 
stone  until  they  formed  a  kind  of  hatchet,  usually  about 
as  big  as  a  man's  fist.  They  used  this  for  chopping,  cut- 
ting, scraping,  and  even  sawing,  for  it  had  a  rough  edge. 
These  "  fist  hatchets  "  are  found  not  only  in  the  south 
of  England  but  all  over  southern  Europe,  and  in  Egypt, 

India,  Japan,  and 
North  America.  So 
the  men  who  used 
the  fist  hatchets  must 
have  been  scattered 
over  the  whole  earth. 
We  do  not  know 
what  other  implements  they  had,  for  all  traces  of  their 
huts,  clothing,  and  wooden  utensils  disappeared  long, 
long  ago,  and  only  their  curious  stone  hatchets  remain 
to  tell  the  tale. 

The  Ice  Age.  Bones  of  several  kinds  of  elephants,  the 
rhinoceros,  and  the  hyena  are  found  along  with  the  stone 
hatchets  in  England,  so  we  suppose  that  the  climate  of 
the  country  was  warmer  then  than  it  now  is  —  more  like 
that  of  Florida  to-day.  But  later  it  became  very  cold  — 
so   cold    that  a  great    sheet  of  ice,  or   glacier,   pushed 


Fist  Hatchf:t  of  the  Stone-Age  Men 


ENGLAND  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  CONQUEST   15 


down  from  the  mountains  of  Norway  and  covered  all 
England  except  the  southern  part  of  the  island.  Our 
own  country  also  was  covered  with  ice  at  this  period 
down  as  far  as  New  York. 

How  man  managed  to  live  during  the  Ice  Age  we  do 
not  know.  Many  of  the  big  animals  that  needed  a  warm 
climate  died  out,  and  the  reindeer,  the  bison,  and  the 
huge  hairy  mammoth  took  their  places.  If  men  had  not 
been  able  to  make 
tools  and  provide 
themselves  with  shel- 
ter and  clothing,  as 
well  as  food,  they 
would  have  suffered 
the  fate  of  the  lower 
animals.  They  learned 
gradually  to  make  ar- 
rowheads and  spear- 
heads of  flint,  and 
bone  needles  with  which  to  sew  together  skins  for  their 
clothing.  They  also  began  to  paint  and  carve  pictures 
on  the  walls  of  caves.  Some  of  these  have  been  discov 
ered  during  the  past  few  years  in  France,  and  show 
surprising   skill. 

After  the  ice  melted,  life  became  easier  and  men  made 
still  further  progress.  They  learned  how  to  weave,  how 
to  make  pottery,  and  how  to  cultivate  grain.    They  tamed 


Drawings  found  on  the  Walls  of 
Caves 


i6       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

horses  and  kept  cattle.  But  even  yet  they  knew  nothing 
at  all  about  metals  and  still  made  all  their  tools  of  stone, 
bone,  or  wood.  This  period  is  often  called  the  Stone 
Age.  It  was  in  this  age,  probably,  that  the  vast  circle  of 
stones,  called  Stonehenge,  was  made.  These  stones  are 
so  huge  that  it  would  not  be  easy  for  men,  even  with  a 
modern  derrick,  to  set  them  up  where  they  are.    How 


Stonehenge  on  Salisbury  Plain,  England 

the  men  of  the  Stone  Age  managed  to  do  it  or  why 
they  made  the  circle,  no  one  knows. 

Bronze  and  iron.  Two  or  three  hundred  thousand  years 
may  have  passed  between  the  time  that  the  men  of  the 
Stone  Age  first  learned  to  make  fist  hatchets  of  fiint, 
and  man's  discovery  that  copper  could  be  used  for  tools. 
Copper  is  an  easy  metal  to  melt  and,  when  mixed  with  a 
little  tin,  becomes  hard  enough  to  make  a  very  good 
hatchet  or  knife.  This  mixture  is  called  bronze,  and  it 
seems  to  have  been  first  discovered  some  five  or  six 


ENGLAND  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  CONQUEST   17 

thousand  years  ago.  Another  thousand  years  or  so 
passed  before  any  one  began  to  use  iron.  This  has 
proved  the  best  metal  for  tools  and  machinery,  for  steel 
is,  of  course,  only  hardened  iron.  Man's  discovery  that 
he  could  use  iron  is  one  of  the  most  important  that  he 
ever  made. 

All  that  we  know  about  the  people  who  lived  in  these 
dim  ages  of  the  past  has  been  learned  from  the  pieces  of 
flint,  the  jugs  and  vases,  the  beads  and  shells,  that  are 
found  to-day  in  the  earth,  where  it  has  been  turned  up  in 
digging  or  plowing,  or  has  been  w^ashed  away  by  streams. 
Such  remains  are  found,  too,  in  caves  and  in  the  big 
mounds  in  which  the  men  of  those  early  times  buried 
the  dead.  No  books  have  been  left  by  them.  Indeed,  no 
one  then  could  read  or  write,  and  the  alphabet  had  not 
even  been  thought  of. 

Section  4.    The  Ancient  Britons 

By  the  time,  however,  that  the  people  living  in  England 
had  learned  how  to  make  use  of  iron,  there  w^ere  in  Eu- 
rope two  countries,  Greece  and  Rome,  w^iich  had  already 
advanced  so  far  in  civilization  that  in  some  ways  they 
knew  as  much  as  we  do  to-day.  It  is  in  their  books  that 
we  find  the  first  mention  of  the  people  who  inhabited 
England  at  this  time. 

Greek  account  of  the  Britons.  In  one  of  their  books 
there  is  an  account  of  the  people  in   the  southwestern 


i8       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

part  of  the  island,  where  there  were  tin  mines.  Accord- 
ing to  this  writer,  the  Britons  in  this  region  were  a 
friendly  people.  They  were  often  visited  by  merchants 
from  other  countries,  for  whose  cargoes  they  traded  off 
their  tin.  They  were  clever  at  w^eaving  cloth  and 
could  even  weave  plaid  designs  in  it. 


Early  British  Pottery 


They  were  much  given  to  feasting.  At  their  banquets 
they  sat  on  rushes  or  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  around  a 
pot  on  the  fireplace,  or  in  a  circle  on  the  grass  in  front  of 
little  tables  on  which  were  baskets  full  of  bread.  Great 
quantities  of  meat  were  served,  which  they  gnawed  from 
the  bone  like  dogs.  Fruit  and  vegetables  they  do  not 
seem  to  have  known.  They  had  a  minstrel  to  sing  to 
them  while  they  ate,  but  his  music  was  not  always  sooth- 
ing, it  seems,  for  a  quarrel  usually  took  place  at  every 


ENGLAND  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  CONQUEST   19 

feast,  and  some  guest  was  pretty  sure  to  stab  another 
to  death  before  the  company  broke  up. 

The  Britons  thought  that  there  were  many  gods  and 
goddesses  to  whom  they  ought  to  offer  sacrifices.  They 
beheved  in  all  kinds  of  signs  and  omens,  and  in  fairies, 
sprites,  and  hobgoblins.  One  curious  belief  was  that 
in  certain  wells  and  springs  there  were  fairies  who  would 
grant  them  their  wishes  in  return  for  gifts  dropped  into 
the  water  or  hung  on  bushes.  Every  sort  of  offering  was 
made  to  these  spirits  —  sometimes  a  piece  of  money, 
sometimes  an  egg,  or  a  piece  of  cloth,  or  a  crooked  pin. 
Even  to-day  this  old,  old  custom  is  followed  in  some  re- 
mote parts  of  England  and  Ireland,  where  the  young 
people  still  believe  in  '^  wishing  w^ells "  and  still  hang 
rags  on  the  bushes  or  drop  crooked  pins  in  the  w^ater 
to  please  the  spirits  of  the  spring. 

Druids.  The  priests  of  the  Britons  were  a  powerful 
body  of  men  called  Druids.  They  made  sacrifices  to 
their  gods,  sometimes  of  human  beings,  whom  they 
burned  to  death  in  wicker  cages.  They  acted  also  as 
teachers  of  the  young  men,  and  settled  disputes  wdiich 
arose  among  the  people.  The  great  oak  trees,  w^ith 
mistletoe  hanging  from  their  branches,  which  we  still  see 
in  parts  of  England,  were  held  sacred  to  the  Druids  be- 
cause it  was  under  them  that  they  performed  their  cere- 
monies. The  mistletoe  itself  was  believed  to  be  a  very 
precious   plant,  capable  of  healing  wounds  and   curing 


20       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


diseases.  There  was  great  rejoicing  when  its  clusters 
of  white  berries  and  gray-green  leaves  were  discovered 
growing  upon  an  oak  tree.  A  Druid,  clothed  in  a  flowing 
white  robe,  climbed  the  tree  and  cut  off  the  plant  with  a 
golden  sickle,  while  the  onlookers  stood  around  and 
gazed  with  awe  upon  the  solemn  ceremony. 

The  Britons  were  scat- 
tered over  the  island  in 
tribes,  each  governed  by  its 
own  chieftain,  who  acted 
also  as  its  commander  in 
case  of  war  with  other  tribes. 
Wars  were  very  frequent, 
especially  in  the  more  thickly 
settled  southern  regions, 
and  different  tribes  were 
constantly  engaged  in  fierce 
conflicts  with  one  another. 


^^^mjaM&^'^^^M 


Ancient  Roman  Vessels 


Section   5.    How  the   Ro- 
mans CAME  TO  Britain 

Julius  Caesar.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  55  B.C.  word  came  to 
the  Britons  from  Gaul,  the  country  that  is  now  called 
France,  that  the  great  Roman  general,  Julius  Caesar,  who 
had  been  for  many  months  engaged  in  conquering  the 
Gauls,  was  getting  ready  a  fleet  of  ships  to  take  him  and 


ENGLAND  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  CONQUEST  21 

his  soldiers  over  to  Britain.  He  had  heard  that  the 
Britons  were  sending  aid  to  the  Gauls  in  the  war  he 
was  waging  with  them,  and  he  wished  to  put  an  end  to  it. 
He  desired  also  to  learn  what 
manner  of  men  they  might  be, 
and  what   their  island   was   like. 

This  alarming  news  was  not 
long  in  spreading  among  the 
Britons.  The  various  tribes  for- 
got for  a  time  their  own  quarrels 
with  one  another  in  preparations 
for  resisting  this  invader  of  their 
country.  It  was  not  till  late  in 
the  summer  that  the  watchers 
who  had  been  posted  on  the  chalk 
cliffs  saw  far  out  on  the  Channel 
the  gleaming  sails  of  the  ap- 
proaching   Roman    ships. 

As  the  fleet  drew  near,  the 
British  leaders,  who  had  assembled 
their  warriors  on  the  shore,  sur- 
veyed with  wonder  the  long  ships 
with  their  beaked  prow\s  and  lines 

of  rowers;  the  Roman  soldiers,  with  their  glittering  lances 
and  shields  and  shining  helmets,  as  they  followed  the 
standard  bearer  who  leaped  from  the  foremost  boat  into 
the  waves,  carrying  the   Roman  eagle ;    and,  above  all, 


Roman  Soldiers 


22       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  commanding  figure  of  Julius  Caesar  himself,  directing 
and  encouraging  his  men.  Such  an  army  the  Britons  had 
never  before  dreamed  of.  Yet  they  were  not  frightened 
by  it,  and  without  even  waiting  for  Caesar  and  his  legions 
to  reach  the  shore,  they  rushed  fiercely  to  the  attack. 

The  Romans  finally  succeeded  in  getting  to  the  shore, 
and,  after  some  sharp  fighting,  put  the  Britons  to  flight. 
Caesar  stayed  in  the  country  only  a  short  time,  however, 
on  account  of  the  nearness  of  winter,  and  returned  across 
the  Channel  to  Gaul  without  having  accomplished  any- 
thing except  the  finding  of  the  way  over.  Little  more 
was  done  on  a  second  invasion  w^hich  he  made  a  year 
later.  He  stayed  a  little  longer  and  went  farther  into  the 
interior,  but  he  was  continually  driven  off  by  the  Britons, 
and  he  finally  gave  up  and  withdrew  his  forces  again  to 
Gaul.  It  was  almost  a  hundred  years  before  the  Romans 
again  brought  an  army  into  Britain. 

Questions,  l.  How  do  we  know  anything  about  the  people  who  lived 
in  the  Stone  Age  ?  2.  Do  you  know  of  any  people  who  live  to-day  as  the 
ancient  Britons  did?  3.  Do  you  know  anything  about  the  Romans? 
4.   How  many  years  is  it  since  55  B.C.  ? 

References,  ('heyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  10-14 
(Caesar  and  the  Britons);  pp.  15-19  (description  of  the  Britons). 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS 

Founding  of  Rome.  The  Romans  conquer  all  Italy,  Rome's  wars  with 
Carthage.  The  government  of  Rome.  The  Roman  army.  Julius  Cassar. 
Augustus  becomes  emperor.  The  Greeks.  Wars  with  Persia.  Greek  educa- 
tion. Famous  Greeks.  Greek  colonies.  Alexander  the  Great.  How  the  Romans 
spread  Greek  civilization.    What  we  owe  to  Greece 

Section  6.    The  Romans 

Rise  of  Rome.  The  soldiers  who  had  come  over  to 
Britain  with  JuHus  Caesar  were  but  a  small  part  of  the 
Roman  annies  which  had  been  engaged  for  six  or  seven 
hundred  years  in  gradually  conquering  southern  Europe, 
as  well  as  portions  of  Africa  and  Asia.  Every  one  should 
know  something  of  the  great  Roman  Empire,  which  grew 
so  eager  to  rule  the  world  that  it  wanted  even  the  remote 
outlying  island  of  Britain. 

It  began  in  a  very  small  way.  The  Romans  themselves 
believed  that  their  town  had  been  founded  by  the  twins, 
Romulus  and  Remus,  seven  hundred  fifty-three  years 
before  Christ.  They  used  to  celebrate  the  event  every 
year.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  may  guess  that  Rome  was 
in  the  beginning  a  little  walled  village  which  gradually 
grew  up  on  the  banks  of  the  muddy  Tiber  in  central 

23 


24       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Italy.  There  seemed  little  prospect  then  that  it  would 
ever  become  the  center  of  a  vast  empire. 

The  Romans  began  by  conquering  the  villages  and 
towns  nearest  them.  They  were  not  often  beaten,  for 
they  were  a  people  of  great  endurance  —  able  to  bear 
pain,  cold,  hunger,  and  the  stress  of  battle,  without  com- 
plaint. They  were  afraid  of  nothing,  and,  most  important 
of  all,  they  were  men  who  never  gave  up  when  once  they 
had  set  out  to  accomplish  anything.  These  qualities 
served  to  make  them  victors  in  the  battles  with  their 
nearest  neighbors,  and  made  it  possible  for  them  gradu- 
ally to  conquer  towns  farther  and  farther  away.  Less 
than  five  hundred  years  after  the  supposed  founding  of 
the  city,  Rome  had  made  herself  mistress  of  all  the 
southern  part  of  Italy;  and  the  small  village,  huddled  on 
a  bank  above  the  Tiber,  had  grown  to  be  a  city  covering 
seven  hills  and  encircled  by  a  wall  almost  five  miles 
around. 

Many  stories  w^ere  told  by  later  Romans  about  these 
struggles  of  their  forefathers  with  the  neighboring  peo- 
ples —  stories  that  turn  upon  the  courage  of  the  early 
Romans,  their  sense  of  honor,  their  love  of  simplicity  in 
dress  and  manners,  their  patriotism,  and  scorn  of  wealth. 
Horatius,  Coriolanus,  Camillus,  are  names  of  some  of  the 
"Roman  fathers"  that  have  come  to  be  familiar  to  us. 

We  call  these  stories  about  Romulus,  Horatius,  and 
other  heroes  ''legends,"  a  name  given   to  tales  of  early 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS 


25 


times  that  one  cannot  be  sure  are  entirely  true,  or  which 
may  not  be  true  at  all.  Such  stories  were  told  over  so 
often,  and  by  so  many  different  persons,  that  it  would 
have  been  impossible  for  them  not  to  get  changed  in 
many  ways  from  the  form  in  which 
they  w^ere  first  told. 

How  the  early  Romans  lived.  The 
early  Romans  lived  very  plainly. 
Their  low,  one-story  houses  were 
built  of  a  sort  of  soft  brick  and 
contained  but  one  large  room,  di- 
vided into  small  apartments  by 
thin  board  partitions.  The  fioor 
was  a  rough  pavement  of  pebbles 
and  clay.  The  everyday  clothing 
of  the  men  consisted  of  a  single 
coarse  woolen  garment,  reaching 
to  the  knees.  This  was  called  a 
tunic.  They  also  wore  leather  san- 
dals, a  felt  hat,  and  on  one  of  the 
fingers  of  the  left  hand  an  iron 
ring,  which  they  used  as  a  seal.  On  special  occasions, 
such  as  public  meetings  and  festivals,  they  w^ore  the 
toga,  a  long  flowing  robe  of  white  wool.  Their  food 
w^as  very  plain  —  mostly  bread,  cheese,  nuts,  fruit,  and 
a  little  wine.  On  holidays  some  eggs  or  fish  might 
be  added. 


A  Roman  Tocja 


26       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Great  changes  came  about  in  the  manner  of  hfe  of  the 
Romans  after  they  had  completed  the  conquest  of  the 
cities  of  southern  Italy,  272  B.C.  These  cities  were  col- 
onies that  had  originally  come  over  from  Greece  and 
established  themselves  in  Italy.  They  had  become  rich 
and  flourishing  towns  long  before  Rome  had  been  heard 
of.  The  Romans,  when  they  conquered  and  took  posses- 
sion of  them,  had  their  eyes  opened  to  ways  of  living  and 
to  comforts  and  pleasures  such  as  they  had  never  dreamed 
of.  The  houses  of  the  Greeks  were  far  more  attractive, 
their  public  buildings  more  beautiful,  their  food  and  wine 
much  more  delicious,  and  their  clothing  more  elegant 
than  anything  the  Romans  knew,  and  the  latter  soon 
learned  from  them  how  to  increase  the  cleanliness,  ease, 
and  attractiveness  of  their  own  lives. 

Some  old-fashioned  Romans  disliked  the  introduction 
of  these  Greek  customs,  but  as  a  rule  they  eagerly 
adopted  the  new  ways  of  living  w^iich  they  acquired 
from  the  Greeks. 

War  between  Rome  and  Carthage.  Now,  after  the  Romans 
had  made  themselves  rulers  of  all  Italy  and  could  depend 
upon  the  conquered  towns  throughout  the  country  to 
raise  armies  whenever  they  might  be  needed,  they  found  a 
new  and  more  distant  enemy  to  fight — a  very  powerful  city 
in  Africa,  on  the  opposite  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

This  new  enemy  was  Carthage,  a  wealthy  state  whose 
trading  ships  sailed  on  long  voyages  to  the  East,  bringing 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS         27 

back  rich  cargoes  of  silk,  spices,  gokl,  and  gems,  and 
carrying  on  a  vast  deal  of  commerce  with  all  the  cities 
on  the  Mediterranean  shores.  So  completely  did  Carthage 
control  the  sea  that  her  ambassadors  are  said  to  have 
told  the  Romans  they  might  not  even  wash  their  hands 
in  the  Mediterranean  without  permission  from  the 
Carthaginians. 

Southwest  of  Italy  there  lies  a  large  island  called 
Sicily.  In  Roman  times  it  w^as  a  rich,  fertile  country, 
producing  great  crops  of  grain  and  grazing  fine  horses 
and  cattle.  Along  its  shores  were  scattered  w^ealthy 
cities  which  the  Greeks  had  founded.  The  Carthaginians 
had  already  gained  possession  of  a  large  part  of  the 
island  when  the  Romans  sent  forces  to  aid  one  of  the 
towns  in  its  fiorht  arainst  Carthaire. 

The  war  thus  begun  between  Rome  and  Carthage, 
in  264  B.C.,  lasted  for  twenty-three  years.  Both  the 
Carthaginians  and  the  Romans  fought  with  unfailing 
courage.  In  the  end  the  Romans  were  victorious  and 
took  possession  of  the  island  and  its  beautiful  Greek 
cities.    Sicily  thus  became  the  first  Roman  "  province."  ^ 

Hannibal.  Some  years  after  this  Carthage  again  quar- 
reled with  Rome.  The  Carthaginian  commander  w4io 
made  the  war  that  followed  one  of  the  most  famous  in 
history  was  the  great  general  Hannibal.  His  skill  in 
planning  his  campaigns  and  his  valor  in  fighting  them 

1  vSee  p.  30. 


30       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Fall  of  Carthage.  The  long  conflict  between  Rome  and 
Carthage,  known  as  the  Punic  wars,  ceased  for  a  while 
after  Hannibal's  death.  But  Rome  could  never  forgive 
Carthage  for  being  so  great  and  prosperous.  She  finally 
became  so  jealous  of  her  rival  that  she  crossed  over  into 
Africa,  laid  siege  to  Carthage,  and  by  starving  the  people 
and  setting  fire  to  the  town,  forced  them  to  surrender. 
The  captives  were  sold  into  slavery,  as  w^as  the  cruel  cus- 
tom in  those  days.  The  great  and  beautiful  city  was  utterly 
destroyed,  and  the  ground  upon  which  it  was  built  was 
cursed  by  the  Romans,  so  that  no  one  should  ever  venture 
to  rebuild  it.  The  destruction  of  Carthage  took  place  in 
146  B.C.,  about  ninety  years  before  Caesar  made  his  first 
expedition  across  the  Channel  into  Britain. 

Roman  provinces.  The  Romans  were  by  no  means 
satisfied  with  the  conquest  of  Italy  and  Sicily  and  the 
destruction  of  the  noble  city  of  Carthage.  They  brought 
many  other  countries  under  their  rule,  including  Egypt, 
Asia  Minor,  Greece,  Spain,  Gaul,  and  regions  along  the 
Rhine  and  Danube  rivers.  By  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar 
all  of  southern  Europe,  besides  a  portion  of  Asia  and 
Africa,  belonged  to  Rome.  Each  country,  as  it  was  con- 
quered, became  a  Roman  province,  ruled  by  Roman 
governors,  kept  in  subjection  by  Roman  soldiers,  and 
compelled  to  pay  a  tax  each  year  to  Rome. 

Government  of  Rome.  In  the  early  days  of  Rome  the 
community  was  made  up  of  different  families,  each  one 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS  31 

under  the  rule  of  its  head.  The  heads  of  the  famihes 
used  to  meet  to  consider  what  was  best  for  the  commu- 
nity and  to  make  laws  for  governing  it.  As  these  heads 
of  families  were  the  older  men,  this  assembly  was  called 
the  senate,  from  senex,  the  Latin  word  for  "  old  man." 

Rome  seems  to  have  been  ruled  by  a  king  as  well  as 
by  the  senate  in  its  early  days.  The  Romans  believed 
Romulus  to  have  been  their  first  ruler.  They  had  a  famous 
legend  which  told  how  they  got  rid  of  their  kings  alto- 
gether. Their  seventh  king,  Tarquin  the  Proud,  was  a 
cruel  tyrant,  who  was  accused  of  killing  citizens  whom 
he  disliked  or  whose  money  he  coveted.  Moreover,  his 
son  was  more  hated  than  Tarquin  himself,  so  the  citizens 
rose  against  the  family,  drove  them  from  the  city,  and 
declared  that  they  would  have  no  more  kings. 

Instead  of  a  monarchy  they  established  a  republic. 
Each  year  they  elected  two  men,  called  consuls,  to  govern 
the  city  together  for  one  year.  In  times  of  special  danger 
a  dictator  was  appointed ;  that  is,  an  officer  who  had 
supreme  power  for  six  months,  and  who  was  superior 
even  to  the  consuls. 

We  have  spoken  of  Rome's  wars,  and  how  she  gradually 
conquered  not  only  her  nearest  neighbors  but  cities  and 
countries  far  away  from  her.  The  army  which  won  these 
victories  was  carefully  organized.  The  companies  of 
which  it  was  made  up  were  called  legions,  each  of  which 
was  composed  of  several  thousand  men. 


32       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Roman  soldiers.  As  time  went  on  and  Rome  gradually 
enlarged  her  borders  and  entered  upon  one  war  after 
another,  the  legions  and  the  successful  general  who  com- 
manded them  became  more  and  more  powerful  and 
important.  When  they  were  sent  off  to  conquer  other 
lands  they  took  care  to  keep  for  themselves  most  of  the 
rich  spoil  they  captured  in  the  wars.  When  they  returned 
to  Rome  to  enjoy  their  new  wealth  and  display  their 
power,  the  general  usually  had  little  trouble  in  persuad- 
ing 'his  soldiers  and  the  citizens  to  elect  him  consul. 
Sometimes  he  was  consul  for  several  years  in  succession. 

The  return  of  a  successful  general  to  Rome  was  usually 
celebrated  by  a  '*  triumph."  For  a  whole  day  the  city  gave 
itself  a  holiday  to  enjoy  the  magnificent  pageant.  First 
in  the  procession  that  moved  along  the  Sacred  Way  in 
full  view  of  the  crowds  came  the  Roman  senators.  Fol- 
lowing them  were  trumpeters  blowing  their  long,  deep- 
voiced  pipes ;  then  trains  of  wagons  loaded  with  the  spoils 
of  war —  masses  of  gold  and  silver,  statues,  pictures,  vases, 
precious  jewels,  rich  embroideries,  and  the  arms  and 
weapons  of  the  enemy ;  then  came  white  bulls  with  gilded 
horns,  intended  for  sacrifice ;  then  elephants,  camels,  and 
whatever  strange  beasts  might  have  been  brought  from 
the  conquered  country ;  then  the  captives,  the  most 
distinguished  of  them  coming  first  in  line;  and  then, 
proudest  of  all,  the  successful  general,  attired  in  a  gold- 
starred  toga,  a  laurel  wreath  on  his  brow,  and  seated  in  a 


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^^/                     /       THE  ROMAIV  EMPIRE 

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I.  l/poatesencr'g  CO.  N.Y.      /                                         1      ■    — ■ . 1 

THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS 


33 


splendid  car  drawn  by  four  beautiful  horses ;  lastly  came 
the  Roman  legions  marching  in  line,  singing  songs  of 
triumph  or  the  praises  of  their  commander,  or  jesting 
with  the  crowds  of  specta- 
tors. The  procession  wound 
slowly  up  the  hill  where  stood 
the  famous  temple  to  Jupiter, 
the  greatest  of  the  Roman 
gods;  and  after  the  chief 
captives  had  been  taken  aside 
and  put  to  death,  the  bulls 
were  slain  as  a  sacrifice  and 
the  general's  laurel  wreath 
was  presented  as  an  offering 
to  the  god. 

Julius  Caesar.  Of  all  the 
Roman  generals  who  won 
the  favor  of  their  soldiers 
and  the  people,  the  greatest 
by  far  was  Julius  Caesar.  So 
great  was  his  popularity  in 
Rome  that  he  was  appointed 
to    the  governorship   of   the 

province  of  Gaul,  with  four  legions  at  his  command,  for 
the  long  period  of  ten  years.  After  he  had  succeeded  in 
conquering  the  Gauls  and  bringing  them  to  the  point 
where  they  were  willing  to  accept  Roman  government 


Julius  Caesar 


34       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

and  adopt  Roman  ways  and  customs,  he  returned  to 
Rome.  Here,  by  means  of  his  army,  his  influence,  and 
his  energy,  he  got  himself  appointed  dictator  and  so 
became  absokite  master  of  Rome. 

He  proved  to  be  as  great  a  man  at  home  as  he  had 
shown  himself  to  be  in  war.  If  he  had  been  allowed  to 
live,  he  might  have  been  the  wisest  ruler  Rome  ever  had. 
But  enemies  sprang  up  who  disliked  some  of  his  reforms 
and  were  fearful  lest  he  might  take  the  hated  title  of 
king.  In  the  year  44  B.C.,  on  the  Ides  of  March,^  he  fell 
a  victim  to  their  hatred  and  jealousy.  As  he  was  seated 
in  the  senate  he  was  suddenly  surrounded  by  a  band  of 
conspirators,  among  whom  were  men  whom  he  had 
helped  to  wealth  and  position  and  had  honored  with  his 
favor  —  above  all,  his  deeply  loved  friend,  Brutus.  They 
set  upon  him  with  their  swords  and,  overpowering  him, 
stabbed  him  until  he  fell,  pierced  with  twenty-three 
wounds. 

No  sooner  had  the  conspirators  killed  Caesar  than  they 
began  to  fight  with  one  another.  The  streets  of  Rome 
were  filled  with  bloodshed  and  strife.  Bands  of  soldiers 
roamed  about,  plundering  and  slaying.  For  thirteen 
years,  both  in  Rome  itself  and  in  the  provinces  out- 
side the  city,  there  was  no  relief  from  the  disorder 
and  misery  caused  by  continual  warfare  among  the 
party  leaders. 

1  The  fifteenth  of  March,  according  to  the  Roman  calendar. 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS 


35 


Augustus  and  the  beginnings  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Dur- 
ing these  long  years  of  civil  war  a  young  granclnephew 
of  Julius  Caesar,  named  Octavius,  proved  himself  to  be  the 
most  powerful  and  popular  leader.  Caesar's  old  soldiers 
preferred  him  to  the  other 
commanders,  and  he  de- 
feated one  by  one  the  men 
who  opposed  him.  Then 
he  took  upon  himself  the 
duties  of  all  the  chief  mag- 
istrates of  the  city  and  gath- 
ered into  his  own  hands 
the   reins  of  government. 

After  gaining  the  vic- 
tory over  his  last  enemy  in 
the  year  3 1  e.g.  he  became 
in  reality  a  king,  although 
he  was  far  too  wise  to  as- 
sume the  title.  He  took  in- 
stead the  title  of  imperator^ 
or    commander    in    chief. 

This  made  him  the  head  of  the  army,  and,  as  the  army 
had  come  to  be  the  most  powerful  body  at  Rome,  he  was 
able  with  its  aid  to  hold  his  position  undisturbed.  The 
Roman  people  did  not  oppose  him,  for  they  were  only  too 
glad  to  let  the  government  remain  in  hands  that  could 
give  them  peace  and  quiet  after  the  bloodshed  of  the  past. 


Augustus 


36       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


Besides  the  title  of  imperator,  from  which  our  word 
"  emperor  "  comes,  the  senate  granted  Octavius  that  of 
Augustus,  or   "  the   Majestic,"  and  it  is  by  this   name 

that  he  is  usually  known  — 
Augustus  Caesar,  the  first 
emperor  of  Rome.  His  reign 
lasted  forty-five  years  —  the 
"  Golden  Age  "  of  Rome  it 
is  called.  During  this  time 
he  bent  all  his  energies  and 
powers  to  establishing  and 
preserving  the  peace  of  his 
people.  He  defended  rather 
than  extended  the  borders 
of  the  Empire  and  greatly 
improved  the  government  of 
the  provinces.  He  encour- 
aged men  of  letters,  poets, 
and  historians  by  his  appre- 
ciation of  their  works.  So 
successful  was  he  in  estab- 
lishing law  and  order  that 
the  Roman  people  paid  honors  to  him  as  a  god  and  called 
him  the  Divine  Augustus. 

During  his  reign  he  also  improved  and  beautified 
Rome  with  many  noble  buildings  —  temples,  theaters, 
arches,  columns,  and  baths.     It  was  his  boast,  so  the 


Column  of  the  Roman  Emperor 
Marcus  Aurelius 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS  37 

story  goes,  that  he  had  found  Rome  a  city  of  brick  and 
left  it  one  of  marble. 

At  first  the  monuments  and  statues  and  works  of 
art  with  which  Rome  came  to  be  adorned  were  the  work 
of  Greek  artists,  for  the  Romans  were  slow  in  develop- 
ing much  skill  of  their  own.  In  time,  however,  Roman 
artists  arose  who  were  successful  in  copying  Greek 
works  of  art  and  in  originating  some  new  styles.  A 
triumphal  arch,  such  as  is  shown  on  page  84,  and  the 
commemorative  column  on  the  opposite  page  are  purely 
Roman  creations.  In  the  time  of  Augustus  and  during 
the  reigns  of  succeeding  emperors  great  numbers  of 
portrait  busts  and  statues  of  distinguished  Romans  were 
made  by  Roman  sculptors. 

Greek  sources  of  Roman  culture.  We  have  seen  how  the 
Romans,  while  they  were  engaged  in  conquering  Italy, 
came  in  contact  with  Greeks  who  had  settled  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  country,  and  how  the  beautiful  build- 
ings and  delightful  ease  and  pleasure  of  their  cities  had 
made  the  Romans  realize  the  coarseness  and  discomforts 
of  their  own  little  town  of  Rome.  They  made  further 
acquaintance  with  the  Greeks  when,  during  the  Punic 
wars,  they  gained  possession  of  Sicily  and  the  glorious 
Greek  cities,  especially  Syracuse  and  Agrigentum,  that 
had  for  centuries  been  flourishing  on  the  island. 

All  this  had  taken  place  before  the  year  146  B.C.  In 
that  year  the  Romans  invaded  Greece  itself.    This  they 


38       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

also  conquered  and  made  into  a  Roman  province,  reduc- 
ing to  utter  ruin  the  beautiful  Greek  city  of  Corinth. 

The  Roman  army  that  captured  and  sacked  the  city 
of  Corinth  brought  back  to  Rome  from  the  ruined  city 
countless  treasures  of  art  —  lovely  statues,  paintings,  and 
bronzes,  carved  vases  and  urns  of  marble,  rich  silver  plate 
and  jewels,  and  all  that  went  to  the  beautifying  of  Greek 
homes  and  temples.  From  every  part  of  Greece,  wherever 
there  was  a  temple  adorned  with  offerings  to  the  gods, 
the  Romans  carried  off  these  treasures  to  ornament  their 
own  homes  and  public  buildings.  Books  were  brought 
over,  too,  and  it  soon  became  the  fashion  for  rich  men  to 
have  a  library  filled  with  the  w^orks  of  Greek  writers.  The 
sight  of  all  these  marvels,  added  to  those  that  had  already 
been  brought  into  Rome  from  Sicily,  so  roused  the  won- 
der and  interest  of  Roman  citizens  that  every  man  of 
wealth  and  taste  longed  to  visit  Greece  and  to  know 
something  of  the  Greek  language  and  literature. 

The  Romans  generally  learned  the  Greek  language 
from  educated  Greeks  w^ho  had  been  carried  off  from  their 
homes,  after  their  country  had  been  conquered  by  the 
Romans,  to  become  the  slaves  of  Roman  gentlemen.  Al- 
though they  were  slaves,  these  Greeks  became  teachers 
of  their  masters'  children,  and  often  read  Greek  history, 
poetry,  and  philosophy  to  their  masters  themselves. 
Educated  Romans  thus  came  to  know  well  all  the  Greek 
writers.     By   the    time    of    Augustus    the    Romans   had 


Head  of  Athena 


39 


40       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

become  so  enthusiastic  in  their  admiration  of  Greek  liter- 
ature, philosophy,  art,  architecture,  and  ways  of  living, 
that  the  whole  Roman  civilization  was  under  the  influence 
of  the  Greeks. 

In  early  days  the  Romans  never  thought  of  writing 
books,  nor  would  they  have  known  enough  or  had  the 
time  if  they  had  wished  to  do  it.  But  after  they  made 
acquaintance  with  the  Greek  people,  they  began  to  trans- 
late Greek  plays  and  poems  into  their  own  language, 
Latin.  All  the  great  Roman  writers  read  the  Greek  au- 
thors carefully,  and  most  of  them  copied  Greek  models. 

Section  7.    The  Greeks 

Greece.  Let  us  now  see  in  what  sort  of  country  these 
remarkable  people  lived,  from  whom  the  Romans  learned 
so  much  two  thousand  years  or  more  ago.  Let  us  see, 
too,  in  what  other  ways  they  were  remarkable  besides 
those  we  have  just  learned  of. 

A  look  at  the  map  will  show  that  Greece  (or  Hellas, 
as  the  Greeks  themselves  called  it)  is  a  small  country, 
not  so  large  as  South  Carolina.  The  mountains,  which 
you  will  see  everywhere,  divided  it  into  many  little 
states.  Almost  every  one  of  these  touched  the  sea  at 
some  point. 

Each  state  consisted  of  a  city  and  the  country  around 
it.  Athens  was  the  greatest  of  these  city-states,  though 
there  were  others  that  are  famous  —  Corinth,  Sparta,  and 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS  41 

Thebes.  These  cities  were  often  at  war  with  one  an- 
other, but  there  were  times  when  some  of  them  joined 
together  to  defend  themselves  against  an  outside  enemy 
or  to  celebrate  their  great  religious  festivals. 

Greece  and  Persia.  The  chief  enemy  of  Greece  was 
Persia,  a  kingdom  of  western  Asia.  The  stories  of  the 
Greek  struggles  against  the  Persians  are  famous.  In 
the  battle  of  Marathon  the  Athenians,  under  their  brave 
and  skillful  leader,  Miltiades,  met  the  first  invading  army 
of  the  Persians  and  defeated  them  utterly,  though  their 
forces  were  not  half  the  number  of  the  enemy.  The 
story  is  told  that  a  great  athlete,  Phidippides,  who  had 
already  run  from  Athens  to  Sparta,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles,  in  two  days,  to  ask  help  against  the  Persians, 
ran  the  eighteen  miles  from  the  plain  of  Marathon  to 
Athens  to  tell  the  citizens  of  the  battle,  and  fell  dead 
at  the  city  gates  with  a  cry  of  victory  on  his  lips. 

Thermopylae  and  Salamis.  When  Xerxes,  the  Persian 
king,  invaded  Greece  with  a  second  army  of  vast  size, 
the  Spartans,  who  before  had  refused  help,  came  to  the 
aid  of  Athens,  and  their  brave  king,  Leonidas,  with  his 
heroic  little  army  of  a  few  thousands,  held  the  pass  of 
Thermopylae  throughout  a  whole  day.  Then  a  traitor- 
ous Greek  showed  the  Persians  a  path  by  w^hich  they 
could  attack  in  the  rear.  But  though  Leonidas  and  his 
little  band  were  thus  overwhelmed,  they  refused  to 
surrender,  and  fought  until  all  were  slain. 


42       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Persians  then  advanced  and  burned  Athens,  while 
their  fleet  prepared  to  overwhelm  the  Greek  ships  in  the 
Bay  of  Salamis.  Themistocles,  the  commander,  who  was 
also  one  of  the  greatest  of  Greek  statesmen,  had  so 
placed  his  ships  that  the  Persian  vessels,  although  they 
far  outnumbered  the  Greek  fleet,  could  advance  only 
a  few  at  a  time.  In  this  way  the  Greeks  were  able 
to  destroy  them  as  they  came  on.  When  the  day  was 
over,  so  many  Persian  ships  had  been  destroyed  that 
Xerxes  gave  up  and  hastened  to  retreat  with  the  few 
that  were  left,  also  withdrawing  his  army  lest  it  should 
be  cut  off  entirely  from  Asia  by  the  victorious  Greeks. 

These  early  struggles  of  the  Greeks  with  the  great 
Persian  Empire  took  place  between  490  and  479  B.C. 
After  that  time  the  Persians  never  again  invaded  Greece. 

Education  of  the  Greeks.  The  education  of  the  Greeks 
was  different  from  ours  in  many  respects.  Beauty,  to- 
gether with  truth  and  courage,  seemed  to  them  of  the 
greatest  importance,  and  Greek  boys  were  therefore 
trained  to  grow  strong  and  beautiful  in  body  as  well  as 
to  be  courageous  and  truthful. 

A  Greek  boy  began  school  when  he  was  about  seven 
years  old.  A  slave,  called  his  pedagogue,  attended  him, 
carrying  his  writing  materials  and  little  harp  or  zither, 
watching  to  see  that  he  walked  with  head  modestly 
bent  in  deference  to  his  elders,  and  looking  after  him 
through  the  day. 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS        43 

At  school  the  httle  boy  learned  to  write,  to  cipher, 
and  to  read  and  recite  parts  of  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey,  the 
poems  of  Homer,  in  which  he  learned  of  the  great  Greek 
heroes  of  the  past — Achilles,  Agamemnon,  Ulysses,  and 
many  others  whose  stirring  deeds  fired  every  Greek 
with  pride.  Every  boy,  too,  w^as  taught  to  sing  and 
accompany  himself  on  some  musical  instrument. 

Athletic  training.  The  part  of  a  Greek  boy's  education 
which  received  the  most  attention,  however,  was  the 
training  and  care  of  his  body.  He  attended  every  day  a 
gymnasium,  where  he  was  taught  to  wrestle,  jump,  run 
races,  throw  a  discus,  and  to  w^alk  gracefully  and  with 
dignity.  He  played  games  there,  too,  with  top  and  ball. 
Later  he  practiced  warlike  arts  —  casting  the  spear  and 
wielding  the  sword. 

When  the  Athenian  youth  was  old  enough  to  enter  the 
army,  —  at  about  the  age  of  seventeen,  —  he  took  the  ephe- 
bic  oath  (so  called  from  cphcbus,  meaning  "  young  man  "). 
By  this  oath  he  was  made  a  citizen  and  bound  himself  to 
defend  his  city  and  to  uphold  its  religion  and  its  laws. 

Athenian  girls,  on  the  contrary,  were  not  so  carefully 
educated.  They  were  kept  at  home,  and  instead  of  learn- 
ing to  read  and  write  they  were  taught  to  cook  and  weave 
and  embroider.  In  Sparta,  however,  girls  as  well  as  boys 
went  to  school  and  were  trained  in  music  and  athletics, 
and  even  took  part  in  the  public  running  and  gymnastic 
contests. 


44       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Spartan  training  was  cruelly  severe.  Spartan 
boys  went  barefoot  and  bareheaded,  slept  out  of  doors 
on  beds  of  hay  or  rushes,  wore  scant  clothing,  often  had 
too  little  to  eat,  and  every  year,  to  test  their  endurance, 
suffered  violent  flogging.  All  pain  and  discomfort  were 
to  be  borne  without  complaint. 

Greek  festivals.  Since  the  Greeks  considered  athletic 
training  and  games  so  important,  they  held  frequent  public 
contests  and  trials  of  skill.  When  they  wished  to  honor 
one  of  their  gods,  —  Zeus  the  father  of  all  the  gods,  or 
Athena  the  goddess  of  wisdom,  or  Apollo  the  sun  god, 
or  any  of  the  many  others,  —  they  held  a  festival,  and  the 
principal  feature  of  the  festival  was  the  athletic  contests. 

The  greatest  of  these  celebrations  was  in  honor  of 
Zeus  and  was  held  every  fourth  year  at  Olympia,  a 
lovely  valley  in  western  Greece,  where  there  was  a 
temple  to  the  god.  The  festival  lasted  almost  a  week 
and  was  called  the  "  Olympic  Games."  The  young  man 
who  carried  off  the  token  of  victory,  —  a  wreath  of 
wild  olive  cut  from  the  sacred  tree  near  the  temple, — 
for  winning  first  place  in  the  contests  was  famed  for 
the  rest  of  his  life  and  honored  after  death.  To  be  an 
Olympic  victor  was  counted  a  greater  honor  than  to 
be  given  a  triumph  at  Rome,  wrote  a  famous  Roman. 
It  meant  not  only  that  such  victors  were  the  best  athletes 
in  Greece,  but  that  they  and  all  who  contested  with  them 
were  able  to  defend  their  country  if  need  should  come. 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS  45 

Greek  architecture.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the 
effect  of  Greek  ideas  on  the  Roman  ways  of  hving, 
and  of  how  the  Romans  improved  their  homes  both 
in  beauty  and  in  comfort  after  they  had  seen  the  homes 
of  the  Greeks.  The  Romans  imitated  also  the  wonderful 
public  buildings  of  the  Greeks. 

In  every  Greek  city  were  to  be  found  public  gymna- 
siums, where  young  men  and  even  older  ones  went  for 
training  in  every  sort  of  gymnastic  exercise.  After  the 
exercise  and  a  bath  they  used  to  meet  for  a  talk  with 
their  friends  in  the  cool  porticoes  and  corridors,  or  in 
the  gardens  fresh  with  plashing  fountains  and  shaded 
by  pleasant  trees.  These  attractive  places,  adorned  with 
statues  and  vases,  with  marble  seats  and  columned 
porches,  were  imitated  by  the  Romans  in  their  public 
bathing  halls. 

It  was  in  the  construction  and  adornment  of  their 
temples,  however,  where  sacrifices  and  ceremonies  in 
honor  of  their  gods  were  performed,  that  the  Greeks 
surpassed  all  other  people.  In  Athens,  the  chief  city 
of  Greece,  one  can  to-day  get  the  best  notion  of  this 
art  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  for  it  was  on  the  broad  and 
level  top  of  the  Athenian  Acropolis  —  a  rocky  height 
overlooking  the  town  —  that  the  Athenians  built  some 
of  the  most  beautiful  temples  in  the  world. 

l^he  most  famous  of  these  temples  was  called  the 
Parthenon,    dedicated    to    the    worship    of    Athena,   the 


46       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

favorite  goddess  of  the  city.  This  building  is  still  stand- 
ing, though  many  of  its  columns  have  fallen  and  all 
of  its  statues  have  been  destroyed  or  carried  away. 
Yet  even  in  its  ruin,  rising  above  the  city  below,  it 
seems  one  of  the  noblest  buildings  in  the  world. 
Through  the  city  streets  and  up  the  long  flight  of 
steps,  moving  in  stately  file  between  the  columns  and 
on  into  the  Parthenon  itself,  the  religious  processions 
of  the  Athenians  used  to  pass,  on  their  way  to  make 
offerings  and  sacrifices  at  the  altar  of  the  goddess 
Athena.  In  the  procession  were  the  priests,  with  their 
attendants  leading  flower-decked  animals  for  sacrifice, 
maidens  carrying  in  baskets  the  implements  used  in 
the  sacrifice,  old  men  bearing  olive  branches,  warriors 
on  prancing  horses,  and  victors  in  athletic  contests.^ 
Greek  columns,  as  is  shown  in  the  illustration  on 
page  48,  were  of  three  kinds,  called  Doric,  Ionic,  and 
Corinthian.  The  Romans  used  all  three  in  building 
their  temples.  We  also  use  them  to-day  in  our  col- 
umned buildings,  so  we  may  see  many  examples  of  them 
in  our  city  streets  if  we  keep  our  eyes  open  in  going  to 
and  fro.  They  may  vary  in  some  ways  from  the  old  forms, 
but  they  are  nevertheless  much  the  same,  and  it  is  usu- 
ally easy  to  determine  to  which  order  they  belong,  — 
whether  they  are  of  Doric,  Ionic,  or  Corinthian  style. 

1  Such  a  procession  was  carved  on  the  celebrated  marble  frieze  which  adorned 
the  walls  of  the  Parthenon. 


47 


48       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Greek  theaters  also  were  copied  by  the  Romans. 
They  were  very  different  from  our  notion  of  a  theater. 
The  most  striking  difference  lay  in  the  fact  that  the 
Greek  structure  had  no  roof  or  side  walls.  The  audience 
sat  out  in  the  open  air,  under  the  sky,  as  one  would 
at  a  ball  game   to-day.     In  countries  like   Greece  and 


Doric  Ionic  Corinthian 

Upper  Part  of  the  Three  Styles  of  Greek  Pillars 


Italy,  where  the  climate  is  warm  and  there  are  long 
periods  of  dry  weather,  it  would  be  comfortable  enough 
to  have  such  theaters.  They  were  often  built  on  a 
hillside.  Spaces  were  cut  out  for  the  circular  rows  of 
stone  seats  that  ran  from  the  bottom  to  the  top,  and 
the  whole  was  built  with  such  skill  that  even  a  whisper 
on  the  stage  could  be  heard  quite  clearly  by  those 
occupying  the  outermost  seats. 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS        49 

Famous  men  in  Athens.  There  was  much  in  Athens 
to  interest  the  traveler  of  ancient  times  besides  the 
splendid  temples,  monuments,  and  statues  and  the 
beautiful  public  buildings.  In  this  famous  city  lived 
some  of  the  greatest  and  wisest  men  of  all  time.  Among 
the  foremost  were  the  three  philosophers, —  Plato,  who 
lectured  on  government  and  how  it  might  be  made 
better;  Aristotle,  who  studied  the  sun  and  the  stars 
as  well  as  the  animals  and  plants  of  the  earth ;  and 
Socrates,  the  great  teacher.  Pericles,  the  famous  states- 
man, whose  wise  plans  made  Athens  the  most  famous 
and  beautiful  city  of  those  times,  lived  there ;  also  his 
friend,  the  sculptor  Phidias,  who  helped  him  carry  out 
his  plans  and  who  made  for  the  Parthenon  its  glorious 
marble  frieze  and  the  noble  gold  and  ivory  statue  of 
Athena.  The  names  we  have  mentioned  are  those  of 
only  a  very  few  of  the  many  illustrious  men  of  ancient 
Greece.  Of  all  of  them  the  one  who  seems  to  us  the 
noblest  and  wisest  is  Socrates. 

Socrates.  Socrates  was  neither  an  artist  nor  a  states- 
man nor  a  great  general,  nor  had  he  any  of  the  physical 
beauty  the  Greeks  so  loved.  But  he  was  wholly  a 
Greek  in  his  love  of  discussion.  It  is  his  discussions 
with  his  friends  and  pupils,  written  down  by  the  most 
famous  of  them,  Plato,  and  the  account  of  his  life  from 
the  same  hand,  that  make  us  realize  how  wise  and 
truly  good   he   was. 


50       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

In  his  youth  Socrates  was  a  soldier,  and  there  was 
none  to  surpass  him  in  courage  nor  to  equal  him 
in  the  endurance  of  cold,  hunger,  thirst,  and  every 
discomfort. 

As  he  grew  older  his  bent  led  him  to  teaching.  He 
did  not  teach  in  a  schoolroom  nor  was  he  provided 
with  a  salary,  but  met  his  pupils  in  the  public  places 
of  the  city,  and  any  one  might  come  to  him  for  in- 
struction. At  any  time  of  the  day  he  was  to  be  found 
in  the  market  place  or  the  public  gymnasiums  or  the 
workshops,  plainly  clad  and  barefoot,  surrounded  by 
boys  and  young  men,  showing  them  the  way  to  wisdom 
by  asking  them  question  after  question  about  what 
they    themselves    thought. 

It  is  what  Socrates  questioned  the  young  Athenians 
about,  and  the  lessons  he  taught  them,  that  interest  us 
most.  He  taught  them  to  see,  through  the  questions 
he  asked,  the  meaning  and  value  of  truth  and  right 
conduct,  of  patriotism  and  honesty  and  justice. 

There  was  no  man  in  Athens  in  those  days  who 
was  so  deeply  loved  as  Socrates,  yet  there  was  none 
who  had  more  enemies.  The  affection  and  influence 
he  gained  made  the  politicians  of  the  city  hate  and 
envy  him,  and  as  the  city  authorities  also  feared  that 
his  teachings  would  destroy  faith  in  the  old  gods  and 
beliefs,  Socrates  was  brought  to  trial  and  condemned 
to  death.     He  made  no  attempt  to  escape  this  penalty, 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS        51 

though  his  friends  urged  him  to  and  offered  their  help, 
and  so  in  his  seventieth  year,  400  B.C.,  he  met  his  death. 
The  Athenian  laws  made  the  end  as  easy  as  possible 
for  a  man  condemned  to  die.  They  allowed  him  to 
have  his  friends  with  him  to  the  last  and  to  take  the 
death  potion  of  poison  hemlock  while  they  w^ere  with 
him.  So  we  read  of  Socrates  talking  quietly  and  cheer- 
fully with  his  sorrowing  friends  on  his  last  day,  and 
meeting  the  end  with  the  same  calm  philosophy  and 
noble  composure  that  had  marked  all  the  events  of 
his  life. 

Greek  colonies.  From  early  times  in  their  history  the 
Greeks  had  been  an  adventuring  people.  The  blue 
waters  of  the  sea  w^hich  makes  its  way  into  their  land 
in  numberless  bays  and  inlets  was  always  tempting 
them  out,  and  the  trading  boats  that  came  to  them 
from  countries  to  the  south  and  east,  and  brought  them 
news  of  the  riches  of  other  lands,  tempted  them  still 
further.  So,  long  before  Athens  had  become  a  great 
city,  the  Greeks  had  ventured  out  on  foreign  waters 
to  Egypt  and  Sicily  and  Italy.  They  had  even  gone 
as  far  as  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  after  w4ieat, 
taking  along  wine,  oil,  pottery,  and  gold  and  silver 
jewelry  to  exchange  for  it. 

To  make  trading  in  foreign  countries  easier  or  to  find 
more  land  for  cultivation,  many  colonies  were  established 
by  the  Greeks. 


52 


INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


How  a  colony  was  founded.  A  colony  was  founded 
somewhat  after  this  fashion :  A  number  of  Greek  citi- 
zens were  chosen  —  sometimes  one  son  from  each  fam- 
ily, sometimes  those  living  in  a  certain  section  of  the 
city  —  to  be  the  ones  to  go  out  and  set  up  their  homes 
in  the  new  country.  An  eminent  citizen  was  selected 
to  be  their  leader.  He  was  called  the  founder  of  the 
colony  and  was  honored  ever  after  as  the  hero '  of 
the  new  town.  Taking  along  their  household  goods, 
the  images  of  the  gods,  and  some  live  coals  from  the 
sacred  fire  that  was  always  kept  burning  in  the  city 
temple,  the  colonists  set  out  for  the  country  that  was 
destined  to  be  their  new  home. 

Cities  founded  by  the  Greeks.  In  this  way^Greek  cities 
grew  up  in  all  the  countries  along  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  and  many  of  them  came  to  surpass 
the  mother  town  in  splendor  and  importance.  Syracuse 
in  Sicily,  Naples  in  Italy,  Marseilles  in  France,  Byzantium 
(now  Constantinople),  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  were  all  col- 
onies founded  by  the  Greeks.  In  southern  Italy  there 
were  so  many  Greek  towns  of  wealth  and  influence 
that,  as  we  read  earlier,  that  part  of  the  country  was 
called  Magna  Graecia.  A  look  at  the  position  of  all 
these  different  towns  on  the  map  shows  how  far  into  the 
ancient  world  the  Greeks  had  penetrated  and  how  wddely 
their  learning,  art,  and  ways  of  living  had  spread. 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS  *    53 

Section  8.    Alexander  the  Great 

Alexander's  early  conquests.  It  was  not  only  through 
their  colonies  that  the  Greeks  made  their  influence  felt 
in  lands  outside  their  own.  There  was  a  famous  Greek 
whose  conquests  did  more  than  we  can  estimate  to  spread 
Greek  culture  and  civilization.  This  was  Alexander  the 
Great,  a  young  Macedonian  prince  of  immense  spirit, 
courage,  and  ability,  who  in  335  b.c,  when  Athens  had 
already  sunk  from  her  former  prestige  and  Sparta  was  no 
longer  a  great  power,  made  himself  master  of  all  Greece, 
—  and  that,  too,  w^hen  he  was  barely  twenty  years  old. 
Aristotle,  the  famous  Athenian  philosopher,  who  was  his 
teacher,  declared,  when  Alexander  was  no  more  than  a 
boy,  that  he  would  some  day  be  ruler  of  the  world.^ 
There  is  an  old  story  that  tells  how  Alexander,  when  he 
was  not  more  than  twelve,  tamed  Bucephalus,  the  wild 
black  charger  that  no  one  could  ride.  As  soon  as  he 
saw  the  horse,  prancing  and  rearing  and  throwing  every 
one  who  tried  to  mount  him,  Alexander  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  make  trial  himself.  Seizing  the  bridle  and 
turning  Bucephalus  so  that  he  should  not  see  his  shadow 
which  had  been  dancing  in  front  of  him,  Alexander  ran 
beside  him,  soothing  him,  until  at  last  he  was  able  to 

^  Philip,  king  of  Macedonia,  father  of  Alexander,  had  during  his  lifetime 
succeeded  in  conquering  many  of  the  Greek  states,  and  so  made  the  way  to  com- 
plete conquest  easier  for  his  son.  It  was  against  Philip  and  his  plans  that 
Demosthenes,  the  great  Athenian  orator,  delivered  his  famous  orations  called  the 
"  Philippics." 


54       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

vault  into  the  saddle  and  ride  back  in  triumph  to  his 
father  and  the  other  onlookers.  The  horse  was  given 
him  for  his  own  and  was  taken  along  in  his  master's 
campaigns  for  many  years. 

Alexander's  conquests  in  Asia.  As  soon  as  Alexander 
had  gained  control  of  all  Greece,  he  took  his  armies 
across  the  Hellespont  into  Asia,  where  he  quickly  de- 
feated the  Persian  army  that  came  to  meet  him.  He 
next  conquered  the  Phoenicians,  and  then  marched  into 
Egypt,  which  yielded  to  his  power.  He  then  returned 
to  Asia,  where  the  Great  King  of  Persia  had  assem- 
bled an  army  of  overwhelming  numbers.  This  Alexan- 
der totally  defeated,  putting  an  end  forever  to  the  vast 
kingdom  of  the  Persians,  who  for  two  hundred  years 
had  been  all-powerful  in  Western  Asia. 

Alexander  in  India  :  his  death.  After  this  battle  Alex- 
ander pushed  on  further  into  Asia,  making  his  way  even 
into  the  remote  country  of  India,  where  no  Greek  had 
ever  been  before.  Then,  having  conquered  all  the  world 
he  knew  of,  east  of  Italy,  he  returned  to  Babylon,  the 
great  city  of  Persia.  Here  he  was  overtaken  by  a  fatal 
illness  and  died  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-three,  after  a 
reign  of  thirteen  years. 

Cities  founded  by  Alexander  and  the  spread  of  Greek 
influence.  Wherever  Alexander  had  gone  in  Asia  and 
Egypt,  he  had  founded  cities.  Over  fifty  of  these  were 
named  after  himself  and  one  after  Bucephalus.     In  all 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS        55 

these  cities  Greek  ways  of  living  and  Greek  ideas  were 
adopted.  In  the  museum  in  Calcutta  there  are  many 
articles  of  Greek  workmanship  that  have  been  dug  up 
along  the  roads  that  Alexander's  army  followed  over 
two  thousand  years  ago. 

Alexandria/  in  Egypt,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Nile,  was 
by  far  the  greatest  of  the  cities  founded  by  Alexander. 
In  time  it  came  to  be  one  of  the  most  important  cities 
of  the  ancient  world,  growing  in  greatness  as  Athens 
declined.  Schools  were  opened  there  to  which  students 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  world,  and 
Alexandria's  library  of  five  hundred  thousand  volumes 
was  famous  wherever  a  word  of  Greek  or  Latin  w^as  read. 
To  our  lasting  regret,  all  these  manuscript  books  were 
utterly  destroyed  by  fire  about  600  a.d. 

Alexander's  great  empire  was  divided  among  his  gen- 
erals at  his  death,  and  was  reunited  only  when  it  became 
part  of  the  much  greater  Roman  Empire  four  hundred 
years  later. 

How  the  Greek  influence  spread  through  the  Roman 
world.  All  that  we  have  read  of  the  Greeks,  their  col- 
onies, their  conquests,  and  their  progress  in  art,  learn- 
ing, literature,  and  architecture,  had  been  accomplished 
long  before  the  Romans  had  made  themselves  masters 

1  Of  ancient  Alexandria  little  now  is  left.  Two  of  her  ancient  monuments, 
the  obelisks  called  "  Cleopatra's  Needles,"  were  removed  about  thirty  years  ago, 
one  to  London  and  one  to  New  York. 


56       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

even  of  Italy  and  before  they  had  been  heard  of  outside 
that  country.  Yet  it  was  through  the  help  of  these  same 
Romans  that  the  Greek  influence  was  destined  to  spread 
much  farther  and  last  much  longer  than  even  Alexander 
could  have  dreamed. 

We  have  learned  earlier  in  this  chapter  how  the 
Romans  copied  the  Greek  customs,  art,  and  whole  civil- 
ization as  soon  as  they  came  in  contact  with  them.  As 
the  Roman  Empire  grew  and  spread  over  most  of  the 
countries  around  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  over  those 
farther  away  from  Rome,  Roman  ofificers  and  governors 
were  sent  out  to  take  charge  of  the  different  provinces 
—  to  Asia  and  Africa,  to  Gaul  and  Spain,  and  later 
even  to  Britain.  Wherever  they  went  they  tried  to  live 
in  the  same  way  that  they  had  lived  at  home.  They 
built  their  elegant  villas  and  temples  and  theaters,  even 
in  remote  provinces,  some  perhaps  a  thousand  miles  away 
from  Rome,  and  adorned  them  with  marble  and  bronze 
statues  and  silver  plate  brought  from  their  Roman  homes. 
They  doubtless  also  took  their  books  with  them,  both 
Greek  and  Latin,  when  they  went  to  live  in  a  new  coun- 
try. In  this  way  the  Greek  ideas  and  influence  made 
themselves  felt  not  only  in  Rome  and  Italy  but  in  all 
the  important  towns  that  grew  up  in  the  countries  that 
the  Romans  had  conquered. 

So  the  Greeks  civilized  and  taught  the  Romans,  and 
the  Romans  spread  throughout  their  great  empire  what 


THE  ROMANS  AND  GREEKS  57 

they  learned  from  the  Greeks ;  and  we  to-day  are  influ- 
enced by  what  has  been  handed  down  to  us  from  them. 
We  imitate  the  Greek  and  Roman  buildings,  we  admire 
their  statues  more  than  any  others  that  have  been  made 
since,  and  we  teach  their  languages  in  our  schools  and 
colleges. 

Homer  and  Virgil  are  still  read  with  pleasure,  and 
many  of  the  old  Greek  plays  still  hold  a  place  among 
the  greatest  productions  of  all  time.  We  accept  much 
that  the  wise  men  of  Greece  thought  about  the  best  ways 
of  living  and  thinking,  though  the  world  has  learned  to 
disapprove  of  and  reject  many  of  their  customs  and 
practices.  The  Greeks,  and  the  Romans  after  them,  left 
all  the  hard  work  to  slaves  and  seem  not  to  have  believed, 
as  we  do,  that  every  one  should  be  permitted  to  rise  as 
high  as  his  talents  and  industry  make  him  capable  of 
rising,  and  that  no  human  being  should  be  owned  by 
another.  They  never  invented  machines  such  as  we  now 
have  for  saving  labor,  nor  dreamed  of  a  locomotive  or 
a  telephone.  Modern  men  of  science,  too,  have  learned 
a  great  deal  more  than  the  Greeks  knew  about  the 
world  in  which  we  live,  —  about  animals,  plants,  and 
chemicals,  and  about  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars. 

It  is  worth  our  while  to  compare  in  this  way  our  own 
time  and  that  of  the  Greeks.  Although  such  a  compar- 
ison shows  that  in  a  great  many  ways  we  have  gone 
far  ahead,  still  it  will  not  lessen  our  admiration  of  those 


58       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

gifted  people.  When  we  look  at  prints  of  the  first 
locomotive  and  compare  it  with  the  huge  and  power- 
ful engines  of  to-day,  it  seems  very  crude  and  puny. 
Yet  if  we  should  undertake  to  decide  to  whom  the 
world  is  most  indebted  for  this  great  invention,  we 
should  agree  that  the  honor  must  go  to  the  first  inven- 
tor. So  when  we  study  what  the  Greeks  thought  and 
did,  and  see  how  much  of  what  we  now  value  came 
down  to  us  from  them  almost  complete,  and  how^  much 
more  has  grown  out  of  the  beginnings  they  made,  we 
see  why  the  world  has  not  forgotten  and  never  should 
forget  its  debt  to  this  great  people. 

Questions,  l.  Give  an  example  of  a  legend.  2.  With  what  weapons 
do  you  think  the  Roman  soldier  fought  ?   (See  the  illustration  on  page  2 1 .) 

3.  Can  you  find  out  why  the  language  of  the  Romans  was  called  Latin  ? 

4.  What  is  the  difference  between  a  monarchy  and  a  republic  ?  5.  Give 
some  examples  of  Greek  myths.  6.  Can  you  name  any  other  famous 
Greeks  than  those  mentioned  in  this  chapter  ?  7.  Where  was  Macedo- 
nia ?  8.  What  was  the  Hellespont  ?  9.  W^ho  was  Cleopatra  ?  10.  In  what 
ways  were  the  Greeks  far  in  advance  of  the  Romans  ?  11.  In  what 
ways  were  they  in  advance  of  us  ?  12.  Are  old  Greek  plays  ever  acted 
now  ? 

References.  Macaulay.  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome.  Botsford.  Story 
of  Rome  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans  Tell  It.  Mahaffy.  Greek  Antiq- 
uities (an  interesting  account  of  the  character  and  customs  of  the 
Greeks).  Shaw.  Stories  of  the  Ancient  Greeks.  Carpenter.  Long 
Ago  in  Greece.  Plutarch.  Vol.  I,  Tales  of  the  Greeks ;  and  Vol.  II, 
Tales  of  the  Romans,  edited  by  F.  J.  Gould. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN 

The  Roman  Emperor  Claudius  invades  Britain.    Boadicea  and  Caractacus. 
Roman  governors  in  Britain,    Roman  roads,  walls,  aqueducts,  amphitheaters, 
and  houses,   Roman  ornaments  and  household  utensils  found  in  Britain.  Books 
and  writing  materials.    How  the  Britons  were  Romanized  during  the  four  hun- 
dred years  that  their  country  belonged  to  the  Roman  Empire 

Section  9.   The  Roman  Conquest  of  Britain 

The  long  struggle  that  made  Britain  a  Roman  province 
began  about  a  hundred  years  after  Julius  Cccsar  landed  on 
its  shores.  During  these  hundred  years  the  wild  Britons 
had  grown  to  be  somewhat  less  like  barbarians  than  in 
Caesar's  time.  Some  of  them  had  even  made  the  long 
journey  to  Rome  and  had  seen  with  their  own  eyes  the 
wonders  of  that  city.  Yet  wars  w^ere  constantly  going 
on  among  them,  and  the  more  powerful  chieftains  were 
always  seeking  to  increase  their  possessions  by  conquer- 
ing other  tribes.  At  last  one  of  these  princes,  it  is  said, 
fled  to  Rome,  to  appeal  to  the  Emperor  Claudius  for  help 
against  his  enemies.  Claudius,  who  had  already  resolved 
upon  the  conquest  of  Britain,  counted  this  a  good  excuse 
for  invading  the  island,  and  in  43  a.d.  sent  a  force  of  60,000 

men  to  carry  out  his  design. 

59 


6o       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

The  conquest  did  not  prove  so  simple  an  affair  as 
the  Roman  emperor  had  expected.  It  took  many  more 
legions  and  generals  than  he  had  provided,  and  he 
himself  did  not  live  to  see  it  accomplished.  Again 
and  again,  after  it  seemed  that  they  had  been  sub- 
dued, tribes  in  one  part  of  the  island  or  another  rose 
against  the  Romans,  and  the  final  conquest  was  not 
completed  until  almost  a  hundred  years  after  the  in- 
vasion under  Claudius. 

Heroic  Britons.  In  these  long  years  of  fighting  against 
the  Roman  legions  there  were  two  Britons,  Boadicea 
and  Caractacus,  who  distinguished  themselves  especi- 
ally. Their  courage  and  patriotism  were  celebrated  in 
after  times  in  many  a  song  and  story.  Boadicea  was  a 
great  warrior  queen  whose  house  and  lands  the  Roman 
soldiers  seized  and  plundered,  after  cruelly  illtreating 
her  and  her  daughters.  In  revenge  she  roused  some  of 
the  tribes  to  revolt  and  gathered  an  army  from  among 
them.  We  are  told  how  she  rode  along  the  battle  line 
in  her  war  chariot,  fully  armed,  urging  the  Britons  on 
to  battle  against  the  Roman  armies. 

A  writer  of  the  times  thus  describes  her  as  she  ad- 
dressed her  followers :  "  She  was  tall  in  stature,  hard  vis- 
aged,  and  with  fiercest  eye ;  she  had  a  rough  voice,  and 
an  abundance  of  bright  yellow  hair  reaching  down  to  her 
girdle.  She  wore  a  great  collar  of  gold,  with  a  tunic  of 
divers  colors  drawn  close  around  her  bosom,  and  a  thick 


THE  ROMANS   IN   BRITAIN 


6i 


mantle  over  it,  fastened  with  a  clasp.  So  she  was  always 
dressed,  but  now  she  bore  a  lance  in  her  hand  to  make 
her  words  more  terrible."  For  many  months  she  was  suc- 
cessful in  her  battle  for  British  freedom.  She  captured 
important  Roman  fortresses  and  caused  great  losses  to 
the  Roman  legions.  She  was  finally  defeated,  however, 
and   in  despair  at   her   failure  she  took   her  own   life. 


Caractacus  before  the  Roman  Emperor 


Caractacus  was  a  prince  who  defied  the  Roman  legions 
for  nine  years.  He  roused  one  tribe  after  another  to  re- 
sist them,  and  admitted  no  defeat  until  he  was  at  last 
taken  prisoner  through  treachery  and  was  carried  in 
chains  with  his  family  to  Rome.  The  Roman  people 
were  wild  with  curiosity  to  see  what  sort  of  man  it  might 
be  who  had  dared  oppose  the  Romans  for  so  many  years, 
and  for  their  amusement  he  and  his  family  were  exhibited 


62       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

in  the  city  streets.  First  in  the  procession  came  the  serv- 
ants and  followers  of  Caractacus,  carrying  all  his  orna- 
ments and  splendid  trappings ;  next  came  his  brothers 
and  his  wife  and  daughter;  and  last  himself,  attracting 
the  attention  of  all. 

His  family,  when  they  appeared  before  the  Emperor, 
began  at  once  to  beg  him  to  have  pity  on  them.  Carac- 
tacus alone,  we  are  told,  remained  silent  and  unmoved.  It 
may  have  been  his  courage  no  less  than  the  tears  and 
prayers  of  his  family  that  moved  the  Emperor  to  pardon 
his  stubborn  resistance,  for  forgiveness  seems  to  have  been 
readily  granted  him,  as  well  as  permission  to  live  in  Italy 
with  his  family  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  But  in  spite  of  the 
comforts  and  advantages  of  the  new  life  among  civilized 
people,  he  must  often  have  longed  for  the  wild  freedom 
of  his  home  in  distant  Britain.  He  is  said  to  have  viewed 
with  amazement  the  beautiful  buildings  at  Rome,  and  to 
have  expressed  wonder  that  men  who  owned  such  palaces 
should  envy  the  Britons  their  poor  huts,  or  take  the 
trouble  to  conquer  their  country. 

Province  of  Britain.  As  soon  as  the  native  British  chief- 
tains had  finally  surrendered,  a  governor,  with  a  force  of 
soldiers  at  his  command,  was  sent  out  from  Rome  to 
keep  order  in  Britain,  so  that  the  Roman  ofiicials  who 
came  there  to  live  should  enjoy  the  same  peace  and  quiet 
that  prevailed  at  home.  It  w^as  the  duty  of  the  governor 
to  introduce  into  the  new  country  the  same  laws  that  the 


THE  ROMANS   IN   BRITAIN  63 

Romans  had  made  for  themselves.  He  appointed  the 
collectors  of  the  yearly  tribute  that  Britain,  like  the  other 
Roman  provinces,  was  now  compelled  to  send  to  Rome ; 
and  he  required  the  natives  to  worship  the  Emperor  as  a 
god,  as  was  common  everywhere  throughout  the  Empire. 

The  burden  of  taxes  laid  on  the  Britons  was  very  heavy. 
Men  were  taxed  for  the  land  they  cultivated  and  for  the 
produce  they  sold  in  the  markets.  They  were  obliged  to 
keep  the  new  Roman  roads  and  bridges  in  repair,  and  to 
entertain  Roman  officials  and  their  bodyguards  whenever 
they  made  trips  through  the  country.  Some,  in  despair, 
gave  up  cultivating  their  fertile  farms  and  let  them  go  to 
waste.  The  poorer  people,  who  were  taxed  for  every  cow 
and  sheep  they  owned,  were  cruelly  beaten  if  they  failed 
to  pay  the  tax.  They  finally  became  so  poor  that  they 
were  bought  and  sold  with  the  lands  they  tilled,  like  slaves, 
or  else  were  forced  into  service  in  the  Roman  army. 

Roman  roads.  When  the  Romans  came  to  Britain  they 
found  a  country  almost  entirely  covered  with  thick  woods. 
So  dense  were  some  of  these  forests  that  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  make  one's  way  through  them.  There  were 
also  great  stretches  of  swampy  land,  useless  either  for 
farming  or  grazing,  and  many  of  the  rivers  were  so 
choked  with  fallen  trees  that  no  boat  could  navigate 
them. 

One  of  the  first  things  done  by  the  early  Roman  gov- 
ernors to  improve  these  conditions  was  to  make  good 


64       INTRODUCTION   TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

roads  connecting  the  different  forts  in  which  the  soldiers 
were  stationed.  Thus  in  time  of  danger  the  legions  could 
be  assembled  on  short  notice.  The  wretched  Britons 
were  compelled  to  toil  like  slaves  in  making  these  roads, 
cutting   down    forests    and    draining    swamps;    but    the 


Old  Roman  Road  in  England 


country  was  much  safer  to  live  in  after  the  highways 
were  built,  while  the  cutting  down  of  the  forests  and  the 
draining  of  the  swamps  increased  the  farming  land  and 
tended  to  make  the  climate  more  healthful  and  agreeable. 
The  roads  extended  to  every  important  place  in  the 
province.  North,  east,  south,  and  west  ran  four  great 
highways,  and  smaller  roads  branched  off  from  them  in 
every  direction.    They  connected,  too,  with  roads  on  the 


THE  ROMANS   IN   BRITAIN  65 

other  side  of  the  EngHsh  Channel  leading  directly  to 
Rome.  Better  roads  have  seldom  been  built.  Four  dif- 
ferent layers  of  carefully  prepared  stone,  sand,  and  gravel 
were  laid  in  a  deep  trench  on  a  hard  bottom,  and  the 
whole  mass  was  then  pounded  into  a  firm,  even  surface. 
Although  they  were  built  eighteen  hundred  years  ago, 
the  remains  of  many  of  them  kre  still  to  be  seen.  Some 
of  them  became  the  foundation  of  later  English  roads, 
while  others  are  found  crossing  parts  of  England  that 
are  now  rarely  traveled. 

Section  10.    Roman  Remains 

Walls  and  aqueducts.  Remains  of  other  Roman  works, 
also,  can  still  be  seen  in  England.  The  most  impres- 
sive are  those  of  the  great  wall  that  Hadrian,  one  of 
the  Roman  emperors,  built  across  the  island  from  Solway 
Firth  on  the  west  coast  to  the  Tyne  River  on  the  east,  a 
distance  of  seventy  miles.  This  wall  was  built  to  protect 
the  Roman  towns  from  the  savage  tribes  in  the  north.  It 
was  nearly  twenty  feet  high  and  more  than  six  feet  thick, 
with  fortified  gates  and  turrets  every  mile  or  so.  A  deep 
ditch  ran  along  the  northern,  or  outer,  side,  and  a  smooth 
wide  road,  with  an  earth  wall  beyond  it,  lay  on  the  south- 
ern, or  inner,  side.  There  were  many  well-fortified  camps 
along  its  course,  garrisoned  by  soldiers. 

The  Romans  had  a  great  love  of  pure  water  for  drink- 
ing and  bathing,  and  in  order  to  bring  it  down  from  the 


66       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

mountains  and  hills  into  their  cities  they  constructed 
enormous  aqueducts.  These  were  channels  of  brick  or 
stone,  sometimes  built  underground,  but  mostly  after  the 
fashion  shown  in  the  illustration  on  this  page.  Through 
these  channels,  extending  on  their  lofty  arches  for  many 


Old  Roman  Aqueduct  at  Nimes,  France 


miles  across  the  country,  the  water  was  carried  straight 
over  hill  and  valley  to  reservoirs  outside  the  city.  From 
there  it  was  sent  in  pipes  to  the  houses  of  citizens,  to  the 
public  fountains,  and  to  the  great  public  bath  halls.  It  is 
said  that  there  were  at  least  nine  aqueducts  in  Rome  it- 
self, and  that  each  citizen  had  almost  twice  as  much  water 


THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN  67 

for  his  daily  use  as  he  would  have  in  one  of  our  modern 
cities.  The  massive  walls  of  many  of  these  old  aqueducts 
are  still  standing  in  countries  that  once  belonged  to  Rome. 
There  are  none,  however,  to  be  found  in  England,  though 
there  are  remains  of  baths,  showing  the  skillful  arrange- 
ments made  by  the  Romans  to  provide  rooms  with  hot, 
cold,  and  tepid  water. 

Roman  amphitheaters.  Another  kind  of  building,  of 
which  traces  are  found  in  every  country  in  which  the 
Romans  lived,  was  the  amphitheater.  The  amusement 
dearest  to  a  Roman's  heart  was  a  gladiatorial  combat. 
In  all  Roman  towns  of  any  size  or  importance  shows 
of  this  sort  were  provided  for  every  public  occasion, 
sometimes  by  the  government,  sometimes  by  politicians, 
who  treated  the  people  to  them  as  a  favorite  means 
of  getting  their  votes.  The  fight  took  place  in  an  amphi- 
theater, an  enormous  building,  with  tiers  of  seats,  like 
those  round  a  circus,  and  a  big  oval  space  in  the  middle. 
The  oval  space  was  called  the  arena,  from  the  Latin 
word  for  "  sand,"  because  it  was  covered  with  sand  in 
order  that  the  blood  of  the  victims  killed  in  the  combat 
might  be  quickly  absorbed. 

Upon  this  arena,  of  which  all  the  spectators  sitting 
in  the  rows  of  seats  above  had  a  good  view,  the  shows 
and  contests  took  place.  Sometimes  there  was  a  fight 
between  lions,  or  tigers,  or  elephants,  brought  from  Asia 
and  Africa,  but  generally  gladiators  fought  the  wild  beasts. 


68       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

The  gladiators  were  either  criminals  or  captives  taken  in 
war,  who  were  compelled  to  fight  for  their  lives  in  the 
arena,  or  else  they  were  men  especially  trained  for  this 
sort  of  fighting  in  schools  established  for  the  purpose. 
Sometimes  they  succeeded  in  slaying  the  wild  beast, 
sometimes  they  were  themselves  slain,  but  however  the 
combat  resulted  it  was  always  a  cruel  one.  Besides  fight- 
ing lions  and  tigers,  gladiators  sometimes  fought  with 
each  other  till  one  was  killed.  Sometimes  criminals 
or  Christian  martyrs^  w^ere  thrown  into  the  arena  to  be 
devoured  by  wild  beasts. 

Traces  of  at  least  three  amphitheaters  are  found  in 
England,  and  in  Italy  in  Roman  times  there  are  said  to 
have  been  eighty.  The  greatest  of  them  all  was  the  Col- 
osseum at  Rome.  It  was  so  vast  that  more  than  40,000 
spectators  could  find  room  in  it,  and  we  are  told  that  at  its 
dedication  shows  were  given  in  it  lasting  a  hundred  days, 
during  which  5000  wild  beasts  were  slain  on  its  arena. 

Roman  houses.  Even  more  interesting,  perhaps,  than  the 
remains  of  Roman  roads  and  walls,  of  amphitheaters,  aque- 
ducts, and  baths,  are  the  traces  of  dwelling  houses  that  are 
found  in  all  countries  that  once  were  Roman  provinces, 
and  the  curious  things  that  have  been  unearthed  among 
their  foundations ;  for  it  is  from  these  that  we  learn 
something  of  the  manner  of  living  of  the   Romans. 

^  The  Christians  who  refused  to  worship  the  Emperor  and  the  goddess  of  the 
city  of  Rome  were  regarded  as  traitors  and  were  punished  accordingly. 


THE   ROMANS   IN   BRITAIN 


69 


A  Roman's  fashion  of  building  his  home  differed  from 
ours  in  many  respects.  The  house,  one  or  two  stories 
high,  was  entered  through  a  sort  of  wide  hall,  richly 
paved  with  tiles  and  adorned  with  statues  and  flowering 
plants.    This  led  into  the  large  main  room  of  the  house, 


^1^.*  Ip^^^**^ 

Remains  of  Old  Roman   Baths,  at  Bath,  England 

called  the  atriiun.  Here  waxen  images  of  the  ancestors 
of  the  family  and  othe&Telics  of  the  past  were  kept,  and 
here  visitors  were  received.  The  roof  of  the  atrium  was 
supported  by  pillars,  and  4h  its  center  was  a  square  open- 
ing by  wiiich  the  room  was  lighted.  As  the  Romans  do 
not  seem  to  have  made  use  of  window  glass,  this  opening 


70 


THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN 


71 


was  uncovered,  and  beneath  it,  in  the  colored  mosaic  pave- 
ment of  the  floor,  was  a  marble  basin  to  receive  the  rain. 


^^m^M 


"^^-^^ 


Roman  Mosaic  from  Pompeii 


Beyond  the  atrium  one  looked  into  a  court  open  to  the 
sky,  a  charming  fashion  of  building  that  the  Romans  had 
learned  from  the  Greeks.  Around  the  court  ran  a  colon- 
naded portico  from  which  rooms  opened.     The  pillars, 


72       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  beautiful  shrubs  and  flowers  with  which  the  court 
was  planted,  the  fountain  in  the  center,  the  statues  and 
vases  adorning  it,  all  made  it  a  delightful  outdoor  room 
in  which  the  family  might  gather.  Beyond  this  court,  in 
country  houses,  lay  flower  gardens,  terraces,  and  orchards. 

The  rooms  that  surrounded  the  atrium  and  the  court 
were  used  for  various  purposes.  In.  the  houses  of  the 
wealthy  there  were  dining  and  sleeping  rooms,  bathrooms 
furnished  with  hot  and  cold  water,  parlors,  rooms  for  tak- 
ing sun  baths,  gymnasiums,  kitchens,  storerooms,  servants' 
rooms,  and  pantries.  There  was,  too,  a  sort  of  chapel, 
where  images  of  the  household  gods  —  the  lares  and 
penates  —  were  kept,  and  where  offerings  of  cakes  and 
fruits  were  laid  on  their  altars.  The  remains  of  some 
Roman  country  houses  extend  over  several  acres. 

In  the  foundations  of  the  houses  and  in  the  earth 
round  about  them,  all  kinds  of  utensils,  implements,  and 
ornaments  have  been  dug  up,  after  having  lain  in  the 
ground  for  more  than  a  thousand  years.  Among  these 
have  been  found  big  earthen  jars  for  wine ;  bronze  cook- 
ing kettles,  some  of  them  showing  where  they  had  been 
mended ;  remains  of  scales  with  curious  weights  in  the 
shape  of  heads  and  hearts ;  spoons  made  of  bronze  and 
bone ;  and  bronze  keys  which  their  owners  seem  to  have 
carried  on  key  rings  much  as  we  do  to-day.  Little  hand 
mills  for  grinding  grain  have  been  found ;  and  iron  horse- 
shoes, hatchet  and  ax  heads,  and  sword  blades  have  been 


THE  ROxMANS   IiN   BRITAIN 


n 


picked  up,  along  with  various  kinds  of  knives  and  shears, 

and  instruments  that  appear  to  have  been  used  in  surgery. 

Among  the  more  ornamental  objects  found  near  the 

villas  are  table  silver,  charming  hand  mirrors  of  polished 


Old  Roman  Spoons,  Bracelets,  Keys,  Hairpins,  and  Sandals 
FOUND  IN  England 

bronze,  long  pins  of  bone  and  bronze  which  the  Roman 
ladies  wore  in  their  hair,  combs  with  double  row^s  of  teeth 
made  of  bone  or  bronze,  bronze  nail  dressers,  sandals, 
brooches  with  which  men  and  w^omen  pinned  up  their 
flowing  outside  garment-s,  beautifully  engraved  rings,  and 
necklaces  of  gold  or  colored-glass  beads. 


74       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


Roman  books  and  writing  materials.  All  the  articles 
just  mentioned  interest  us  because  they  are  not,  after  all, 
so  very  unlike  what  we  use  to-day.  There  is  one  Roman 
implement,  however,  the  stylus,  that  arouses  our  interest 
because  it  is  so  different  from  anything  we  use  in  our 
daily  life.  When  a  Roman  wished  to  write  anything 
down  he  did  not  take  paper  and  pen,  as  we  do.  He  used, 
instead,  a  tablet  or  thin  square  of  wood 
which  had  been  covered  with  a  coating 
of  black  wax,  and  wrote  on  it  with  his 
stylus.  The  stylus  was  made  of  metal, 
one  end  pointed  and  the  other  flat,  and 
was  about  the  size  of  a  small  penholder. 
He  wrote  with  the  pointed  end,  using 
the  flat  end  for  erasing  and  for  smooth- 
ing out  the  wax  again.  When  he  wished 
to  write  a  letter,  he  took  several  tablets, 
wrote  his  letter  on  them,  tied  them  to- 
gether with  a  strong  cord,  and  sent 
them  off  by  a  messenger.  The  person  who  received  the 
letter,  after  reading  it,  erased  it  with  his  stylus,  wrote 
his  answer  on  the  same  tablets,  and  sent  them  back 
again.  Many  of  these  Roman  pens  have  been  found  in 
England,  and  occasionally  one  of  the  wooden  frames  of 
the  wax  tablets. 

The  books  of  the   Romans,  too,  were  different  from 
anything  we  see  to-day.    Instead  of  being  made  up  of  a 


Old  Roman  Book 


THE  ROMANS  IN   BRITAIN  75 

number  of  sheets  of  printed  paper,  fastened  together  and 
inclosed  within  stiff  covers,  they  consisted  of  sheets  of 
papyrus,  pasted  together  into  one  long  strip,  which  was 
rolled  up  when  not  in  use.  The  writing  —  for  all  books 
were  written  by  hand  with  a  reed  or  quill  pen  in  those 
days  and  for  many  hundred  years  afterwards  —  was  in 
columns.  A  roll  of  papyrus  several  yards  long  was  neces- 
sary for  even  a  short  book,  and  some  books  covered  sev- 
eral rolls.  The  reader  held  the  roll  in  both  hands,  slowly 
unrolling  it  with  one  hand  as  he  read,  and  rolling  it  up 
with  the  other.  Usually  only  one  side  of  the  long  strip  was 
written  on.  Sometimes  the  other  side  of  old  books  was 
used  for  schoolboys'  exercises  or  for  scribbling  paper.  The 
roll  was  kept  in  a  parchment  cover  colored  red  or  yellow. 

The  papyrus  sheets  were  made  in  Egypt  from  a  reed- 
like plant,  growing  along  the  Nile.  The  pithy  inner  part 
of  the  plant's  stalk  was  cut  into  strips,  laid  on  boards, 
moistened  with  paste,  then  covered  with  a  second  layer 
of  strips  laid  crosswise,  and  the  two  pressed  together 
until  they  formed  one  sheet.  After  this  had  been  dried 
and  polished  it  was  ready  for  use.  Our  word  "  paper  "  is 
derixed  from  the  Latin  word  papyrus. 

Roman  religion.  The  Romans  introduced  their  own  re- 
ligion into  Britain — the  worship  of  Jupiter  and  Minerva, 
of  Mars  and  Venus,  of  the  many  lesser  gods  and  god- 
desses that  they  held  sacred,  as  well  as  the  worship  of 
the  emperor.     They  built  temples,  too,  of  the  same  style, 


76 


INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


fTTTTTTVTml 


copied  from  the  beautiful  Greek  buildings,  as  they  built 
everywhere  in  the  other  provinces  belonging  to  the 
Roman  Empire. 

Some  of  the  altars  that  they  erected  to  their  gods  and 
to  the  various  spirits  that  were  thought  to  keep  guard 
over  fields  and  woods  and  springs  have  been  found  in 
England,  as  well  as  little  bronze  images  of  the  gods  and 
goddesses,  and  stone  statues  of  them.  One  of  the  most 
charming  of  these  altars  is  inscribed,  "  From  the  Twenti- 
eth Legion,  the  Valiant  and  Victori- 
ous, to  the  Nymphs  and  Fountains." 

How  Britain  became  Roman.  Grad- 
ually the  people  of  Britain,  like  those 
of  the  Roman  provinces  everywhere, 
learned  to  dress  and  live  like  their 
Roman  conquerors,  to  speak  Latin, 
and  to  take  pleasure  in  the  same 
amusements.  In  Roman  times,  in  fact, 
an  educated  Briton  would  have  felt 
at  home  in  Gaul,  in  Italy,  in  Egypt,  or  in  any  of  the 
Roman  provinces,  for  wherever  he  went  he  would  find 
men  speaking  the  same  language  as  himself,  reading  the 
same  books,  obeying  the  same  laws,  using  the  same  kind 
of  money,  weights,  and  measures,  enjoying  the  same 
amusements,  worshiping  the  same  gods,  and  feeling  the 
same  pride  in  calling  himself  a  Roman  citizen  and  in 
paying  homage  to  the   Roman  emperor. 


Roman  Altar  found 
IN  England 


THE  ROMANS   IN  BRITAIN  11 

All  these  things  made  up  the  Roman  civilization, 
namely,  their  code  of  laws,  their  religion,  their  ways  of 
living,  their  skill  in  constructing  houses,  roads,  walls, 
aqueducts,  and  fine  public  buildings,  their  language, 
their  books,  and  their  system  of  government ;  and  it  is 
the  teaching  of  their  civilization  to  the  different  people 
they  conquered  that  is  called  the  Romanizing  of  these 
people. 

The  process  of  Romanizing  the  Britons  was  a  long 
one,  but  in  the  four  hundred  years  during  which  the  Ro- 
mans remained  in  the  country  it  was  so  thoroughly  done 
that  little  trace  of  the  Britons  of  Caesar's  time  could  be 
found.  Their  descendants  had  come  to  love  too  well  the 
ease  and  comfort  of  the  Roman  way  of  living.  The  quiet 
and  order  that  prevailed  under  Roman  protection,  and 
their  lives  of  inaction,  had  well-nigh  smothered  the  wild, 
free  spirit  and  the  courage  in  battle  that  Britons  like 
Boadicea  and  Caractacus^  had  shown  in  early  days. 
When,  at  last,  about  400  a.d.,  the  Romans  were  com- 
pelled to  withdraw  their  legions  from  Britain  in  order 
to  protect  their  borders  nearer  home,  the  dependent 
Britons,  having  almost  no  leaders  of  courage  and  ability 
and  few  soldiers  other  than  the  miserable  laborers  on  the 
farms  and  estates,  were  not  able  to  defend  their  island 
from  the  new  invaders  that  had  already  begun  to  make 
their  way  across  the  sea  from  Germany. 

^  See  p.  60. 


78        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Questions.  X.  What  is  a  mosaic  ?  2.  Why  do  you  suppose  the  Romans 
did  not  write  their  letters  on  papyrus  ?  3.  What  do  the  letters  a.d.  mean 
after  a  date  ?  4.  What  can  you  find  out  about  Pompeii  ?  5.  Were  the 
Romans  more  civilized  than  we  in  any  way  ?  6.  In  what  ways  were  they 
uncivilized  ? 

References.  Cheyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  p.  23  (a  Roman 
attack  on  the  Britons)  ;  p.  25  (Boadicea) ;  pp.  26-27  (Agricola,  a  Roman 
governor).  Bates  and  Coman.  English  History  Told  by  English  Poets, 
p.  I  (a  passage  from  Shakespeare's  Cymbeline)  ;  p.  4  (Boadicea).  Kip- 
ling.   Puck  of  Pook's  Hill. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE 

How  Caesar  and  later  Roman  generals  fought  with  the  Germans.  Their  ways 
of  life,  government,  religion,  and  amusements.  How  Germans  gradually  settled 
in  Roman  provinces.  The  batde  of  Adrianople.  Alaric,  the  Goth,  makes  his 
way  to  Rome.  Constantinople  becomes  the  capital  of  the  eastern  part  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  (^erman  leaders  establish  kingdoms  in  the  western  half  of 
the  Roman  Empire.  The  Germans  invade  England.  Almost  all  traces  of  the 
Romans  disappear  in  England 

Section  ii.    The  Early  Germans 

German  tribes.  If  one  looks  at  a  map  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  one  sees  on  the  northern  borders  of  the  realm  a 
great  stretch  of  country  called  Germania.  In  Roman 
times  this  was  a  vast  and  dismal  region,  shaggy  with 
thick  forests  and  impassable  in  many  places  on  account 
of  deep  swamps  and  steep  mountain  heights.  Scattered 
throughout  its  length  and  breadth  there  lived  many  tribes 
belonging  to  the  great  German  family,  among  them  the 
Goths,  Franks,  Angles,  and  Saxons. 

While  Julius  Caesar  was  conquering  Gaul  he  attacked 
some  Germans  that  had  crossed  the  Rhine  to  seize  land 
belonging  to  the  Gauls.  He  found  them  a  crafty  and  hardy 
people,  so  skillful  in  fighting  that  he  had  no  little  trouble 
in  driving  them  back  again  across  the  river. 

79 


8o        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Description  of  the  Germans.  The  Germans  were  not 
savages,  in  spite  of  the  wildness  of  their  country.  They 
Hved  in  houses,  raised  crops  of  grain,  and  had  herds 
of  cattle.  Their  food  was  very  simple,  for  they  lived 
on  the  grain  they  raised,  the  game  they  shot,  the  wild 
fruit  they  found  in  the  woods,  and  a  sort  of  cheese  made 
of  curdled  milk.  They  were  also  fond  of  beer,  as  the 
Germans  still  are. 

The  men  were  tall  and  powerful,  with  fierce  blue  eyes 
and  reddish  hair  and  beards.  Their  clothing  was  scanty, 
for  they  wore  but  one  garment,  which  was  usually  made 
of  the  skins  of  beasts  and  which  left  much  of  the  body 
exposed.  Even  in  the  cold  of  winter  this  single  garment 
was  all  they  put  on.  The  women  wore  linen  garments, 
often  colored  purple  or  red.  They  were  greatly  respected 
by  the  men,  whom  they  frequently  assisted  with  their 
good  counsel.  In  time  of  war  they  urged  their  husbands 
and  sons  on  to  battle  and  cheered  them  during  the  fight 
with  shouts  of  encouragement,  or  heaped  abuse  on  them 
if  they  fled  before  the  enemy. 

The  Germans  regarded  their  older  and  more  experi- 
enced men  with  especial  reverence.  In  all  meetings  to 
consider  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  a  tribe,  the 
elders  took  the  lead  in  discussing  and  deciding  questions. 
The  younger  men  were  very  respectful  to  them,  even 
counting  it  a  disgrace  to  attempt  to  surpass  them  in 
deeds  of  daring. 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  ROMAN   EMPIRE      8l 

Caesar  describes  them,  finally,  as  a  people  both 
aggressive  and  distrustful,  who  not  only  did  not  consider 
acts  of  brigandage  outside  their  borders  wrongful,  but 
even  encouraged  them  as  a  means  of  keeping  their 
young  men  in  warlike  spirit,  and  whose  policy  it  was  to 


Old  Roman  Bridge  at  Alcantara,  Spain 


lay  waste  large  areas  around  them  that  they  might  be 
s^fe  from  sudden  attack  by  neighboring  tribes. 

The  Germans  and  the  Romans.  These  German  peoples 
made  their  way  again  and  again  across  the  borders  of  the 
Roman  Empire ;  and  long  before  the  Romans  abandoned 
Britain  and  took  their  legions  back  to  Italy,  they  had 
begun  to  sail  over  to  the  island  and  make  raids  upon 
its  coast  towns,  pillaging  farms  of  their  sheep  and  cattle 
and  carrying  off  whatever  food  and  treasure  they  could 
lay  their  hands  upon. 


82       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  Roman  government  fought  back  the  bands  of 
German  soldiers  who  attempted  to  force  their  way  across 
the  frontiers  of  the  Empire,  but  small  numbers  of  Ger- 
man settlers,  bringing  their  household  goods  and  posses- 
sions, were  often  allowed  to  cross  over  into  the  Roman 
provinces  of  Gaul  or  northern  Italy  and  settle  down 
without  opposition.  The  tribes  who  entered  the  Empire 
in  this  peaceable  fashion  were  considered  immigrants 
rather  than  invaders.  Roman  officials  granted  them  land 
on  which  to  settle,  and  the  men  were  drafted  into  the 
Roman  army.  The  Romans  and  Germans  intermarried, 
and  in  the  course  of  a  generation  or  two  there  came  to  be 
little  distinction  between  them. 

In  the  later  times  of  the  Roman  Empire  a  large  part 
of  the  army  was  made  up  of  Germans,  and  many  of  the 
best  officers  in  command  of  the  legions  were  Germans  or 
their  descendants.  Some  of  the  Roman  emperors  even 
invited  large  colonies  of  Germans  to  settle  in  Roman 
provinces,  asking  in  return  that  they  fight  in  defense 
of  their  adopted  country  whenever  it  was  in  danger. 

Section  12.    Last  Days  of  the  Roman  Empire 

Battle  of  Adrianople.  There  were  times,  however,  when 
German  settlers  came  into  the  Roman  territory  in  such 
numbers  that  the  government  was  at  a  loss  to  find  homes 
and  occupation  for  them  all,  and  difficulties  arose  which 
resulted  in  battles  between  the  two  peoples.    One  Roman 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE     St, 

historian,  who  had  been  a  soldier  in  the  Roman  army, 
tells  of  an  occasion  when  the  Germans  came  over  in  such 
numbers  as  to  overwhelm  the  Roman  forces. 

The  eastern  part  of  Germany  just  north  of  the  Danube 
was  occupied  by  a  tribe  called  the  Goths.  While  they 
were  living  peaceably  there,  farming  their  land  and  tend- 
ing their  cattle,  they  received  sudden  news  of  an  ap- 
proaching invasion  of  Huns  —  a  wild,  savage  people 
from  Asia,  who  had  pushed  their  way  across  the  bleak, 
arid  plains  of  eastern  Europe  into  the  more  fertile  coun- 
try of  the  Germans,  plundering,  burning,  and  slaying 
everywhere. 

At  the  approach  of  the  Huns  the  Goths  fled  in  terror 
from  their  little  homes  and  fields,  leaving  their  lands  and 
flocks  to  become  the  spoil  of  the  invaders.  They  hurried 
south  to  the  banks  of  tlie  Danube  and  sent  messengers 
to  ask  permission  to  settle  in  the  Roman  provinces  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river,  where  so  many  Germans  had 
already  made  their  homes.  The  Roman  officials  gave  the 
desired  permission,  although  they  w^ere  astonished  by  the 
great  throngs  of  immigrants  who  kept  crossing  the  river 
in  an  unending  stream  of  boats,  until  their  numbers 
seemed  like  the  sands  of  the  sea. 

The  Roman  offlcials  had  made  no  suitable  prepara- 
tions in  the  way  of  food  and  shelter  for  these  newcomers, 
until  such  time  as  they  could  make  homes  for  themselves. 
The  Goths  complained   bitterly  of  the  treatment   they 


84        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

received,  saying  that  when  they  were  in  need  of  food  the 
Romans  took  advantage  of  them  by  forcing  them  to  sell 
even  their  wives  and  children  into  slavery,  and  that  often 
they  got  only  dogs'  meat  in  payment.  Smarting  under 
this  injustice   they   resolved    to   fight   for   their   rights; 


Arch  of  Constantine  at  Rome,  as  it  appears  To-day 

and  they  not  only  fought  the  Romans,  but  defeated 
them  on  their  own  soil  in  the  battle  of  Adrianople,  378. 
Alaric  and  the  Goths.  Made  bold  by  this  success  the 
Germans  went  further  than  ever  before  into  the  country 
of  the  Romans.  Some  twenty  years  after  the  battle  of 
Adrianople,  Alaric,  a  Goth  who  had  lived  in  a  Roman 
province  much  of  his  life  and  had  even  held  a  position 
under  the  government,  became  the  leader  of  the  Goths. 
Having  been  refused  a  request  for  more  land  for  his 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  ROMAN   EMPIRE      85 

people  and  better  pay  for  himself,  he  incited  a  band  of 
Goths  to  revolt  against  the  government,  and  finally  led 
them  down  through  Italy  to  Rome  itself.  He  captured 
the  city  with  little  difficulty.  But  the  splendors  of  the 
capital,  with  its  temples  and  arches  and  columned  build- 
ings, impressed  him  so  deeply  that  he  restrained  his  fol- 
lowers as  far  as  possible  from  burning  or  destroying,  and 
went  away  content  w^ith  the  load  of  'treasure  he  and  his 
men  carried  off. 

This  sack  of  Ron>e  (in  410)  by  Alaric  made  a  great 
impression  on  the  world,  for  it  was  the  first  time  in  hun- 
dreds of  years  that  the  sacred  city  of  the  Roman  Empire 
had  been  entered  by  an  invader  and  its  treasures  of  gold 
and  silver,  precious  vases  and  bronzes,  silks  and  costly 
jewels,  touched  by  an  enemy's  hands. 

Western  Roman  Empire.  Rome  was,  however,  at  this 
time  not  the  only  capital  of  the  vast  Roman  Empire. 
Some  eighty  years  before  Alaric  and  his  Goths  captured 
Rome,  a  new  capital  had  been  established  by  the  Emperor 
Constantine,  far  to  the  east,  in  what  is  now  Turkey.  He 
called  the  new  capital  Constantinople,  after  himself.  As 
the  Romans  had  become  accustomed  to  having  two  em- 
perors at  a  time  (and  sometimes  even  three  or  four),  one 
of  the  emperors  naturally  made  his  headquarters  in  Con- 
stantinople and  the  other  in  Italy.  One  w^as  supposed  to 
defend  the  eastern  part  of  the  commonwealth  and  the 
other  the  western. 


86        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Germans  in  the  Roman  Empire.  The  Roman  emperors 
at  Constantinople  were  able  to  resist  or  defeat  the  Ger- 
man hordes  that  continued  to  press  into  the  eastern  por- 
tions of  the  Empire,  and  to  defend  the  throne  from  their 
attacks.  But  the  emperors  in  Italy  were  not  so  success- 
ful, and  during  the  hundred  years  following  Alaric's  raid 
on  Rome  the  western  portions  of  the  Empire  were  grad- 
ually occupied  by  various  German  tribes.  The  East  Goths 
established  a  kingdom  in  Italy  under  their  famous  king, 
Theodoric,  and  the  Franks  invaded  .Gaul  and  established 
another  kingdom  under  their  chief,  Clovis.  In  time  the 
name  of  Gaul  was  changed  to  Frankland,  or  Francia,  the 
land  of  the  Franks ;  and  our  modern  name  for  France  is 
therefore  derived  from  the  name  of  one  of  the  German 
tribes  who  helped  to  break  up  the  Roman  Empire. 

A  few  of  these  German  invaders  who  settled  down  m 
Italy,  Gaul,  and  Spain  were  able  to  appreciate  and  eager 
to  preserve  all  that  the  Romans  had  accomplished,  but 
many  cared  little  for  such  things.  Sometimes  they  de- 
stroyed the  buildings  and  treasures  and  sometimes  they 
let  them  go  to  ruin  through  neglect.  It  is  therefore 
mostly  by  a  happy  chance  that  any  remains  of  the  build- 
ings, works  of  art,  and  books  of  the  Roman  people  have 
survived  until  our  day. 

Fine  and  delicate  works  of  art,  such  as  statues,  bronzes, 
and  vases,  were  often  preserved  by  having  been  buried  in 
the  earth  or  in  the  ruins  of  buildings,  or  sunk  to  the 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE     87 

bottom  of  rivers  and  lakes,  whence  they  have  been 
rescued  in  modern  times.  Some  of  the  books  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  containing  their  poems,  histories, 
orations,  and  philosophy,  have  come  down  to  us  also, 
but  most  of  these  were  lost  forever,  for  the  libraries 
were  destroyed  and  there  was  no  one  to  take  care  of 
the  books  and  see  that  new  copies  were  made  of  them. 


The  Maison  Carree,  a  Roman  Temple  still  standing 
IN  NiMES,  France 

Besides  these  remains  of  the  old  Roman  Empire,  the 
world  owes  to  the  Romans  the  Latin  language,  which  is 
the  foundation  of  the  languages  spoken  to-day  by  the 
people  of  France,  Italy,  and  Spain.  Words  made  from 
Latin  form  so  large  a  part  of  the  English  language  also, 
that  we  can  scarcely  speak  a  sentence  that  does  not  con- 
tain some  of  them.  Another  legacy  left  us  by  the  Romans 
is  their  code  of  laws,  some  of  which  are  so  wise  and  just 


SS       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

that  men  have  never  been  able  to  improve  upon  them. 
Many  of  them  are  still  in  use  in  different  countries  of 
Europe,  and  their  influence  is  seen  in  the  laws  of  our 
own  country.  So,  though  the  Roman  Empire  itself  came 
to  an  end  and  passed  away  forever,  the  influence  of  the 
Roman  ideas  is  still  alive  and  perhaps  will  never  alto- 
gether pass  away. 

Section  13.    The  Germans  in  England 

Invasions  of  Britain.  We  have  seen  how  the  Germans 
made  their  way  into  Italy,  Gaul,  and  Spain,  and  how  the 
Roman  Empire  was  gradually  broken  up.  Let  us  turn 
now  once  more  to  Britain  and  the  Britons.  Even  while 
the  Romans  still  held  sway  there,  three  German  tribes  — 
the  Jutes,  Angles,  and  Saxons  —  had  already  made  many 
attacks  along  the  coast  for  the  sake  of  plunder.  After 
the  Roman  garrisons  that  used  to  guard  the  coast 
went  back  to  Italy,  these  attacks  and  invasions  became 
far  more  frequent  and  serious.  At  the  same  time 
that  the  Britons  w^ere  suffering  in  this  way  from  the 
Germans  they  were  also  greatly  harassed  by  the  wild 
Picts  and  Scots,  who  invaded  their  country  from  Ire- 
land and  Scotland.  All  these  troubles  increased  as  the 
years  went  on. 

Beautiful  stories  were  told  in  later  times  about  a  noble 
and  heroic  Christian  king  of  the  Britons,  called  Arthur, 
who  tried   to  protect  his  subjects  from   the   attacks  of 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  ROMAN   EMPIRE     89 

these  heathen  tribes,  and  who  dwelt  in  splendid  state 
with  his  fair  queen,  Guinevere,  in  a  castle  at  Camelot,  in 
Wales.  With  them  lived  many  knights  and  ladies,  "  w^ho 
served  as  patterns  of  valor,  breeding,  and  grace  to  the 
whole  world."  Twelve  of  the  bravest  knights  w^ere  chosen 
by  Arthur  to  sit  at  table  with  him  and  were  called  the 
"  Knights  of  the  Round  Table"  —  among  them  Sir 
Lancelot,  Sir  Perceval,  and  Sir  Galahad.  They  went  forth 
on  quests  of  chivalry  —  to  protect  women,  rescue  the 
oppressed,  punish  wrongdoers,  free  the  enchanted,  and 
bring  succor  to  all  in  distress.  The  stories  about  them 
are  so  beautiful  that  we  do  not  like  to  believe  what 
historians  tell  us  —  that  they  are  only  stories  and  not 
real  history. 

The  Britons  w^ere  so  sorely  distressed  by  all  the  in- 
vaders that  at  last,  according  to  one  account,  some  of 
them  wTote  a  letter  to  a  great  Roman  general,  imploring 
him  to  send  back  the  Roman  legions  so  that  Britain  might 
have  help  against  her  enemies.  The  Britons  thought  it 
better  to  run  the  risk  of  being  again  oppressed  by  the 
Romans  than  to  be  destroyed  entirely  by  these  new 
invaders. 

The  piteous  letter,  however,  brought  no  help,  for  the 
Romans  had  their  hands  full,  fighting  with  Goths  and 
Huns,  and  could  pay  no  attention  to  the  plea  of  the 
Britons.  The  latter  then  decided,  so  the  old  historians  tell 
us,  that  rather  than  be  entirely  destroyed  by  the  Picts  and 


90       INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Scots  they  would  invite  the  Germans  to  help  them  de- 
fend the  country,  offering  them  land  to  settle  on  in  pay- 
ment for  their  services.-^ 

Britain  becomes  England.  This  offer  was  not  refused, 
and  about  the  year  449  three  long  ships  appeared  off  the 
coast  of  England,  bringing  bands  of  Germans  under  two 
leaders,  Hengist  and  Horsa.  Almost  before  they  had 
taken  up  the  fight  against  the  Picts  and  Scots  and  driven 
them  out  of  Britain,  there  came  more  and  more  ships  from 
Germany,  until  Britain  found  herself  overwhelmed  with 
a  new  enemy  worse  than  the  old.  For  after  the  Germans 
had  driven  out  the  Picts  and  Scots,  they  refused  to  con- 
fine themselves  to  the  lands  that  the  Britons  had  given 
to  them  as  a  reward  for  their  good  services,  and  began  to 
swarm  over  all  England,  carrying  death  and  destruction 
everywhere. 

The  wretched  Britons  were  not  able  to  hold  their  own 
and  live  on  equal  terms  with  the  Germans,  and  in  the 
end,  after  a  struggle  lasting  two  centuries,  they  were 
either  slain  or  made  slaves  by  the  enemy,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  some  who  took  refuge  in  Gaul  and  Ireland,  and 
others  who  fled  to  the  mountains  of  Wales,  in  which 
country  their  descendants  still  live  and  are  known  as 
Welshmen. 


1  Modern  historians  do  not  find  very  good  proof  of  the  old  historians'  story  of 
this  letter  sent  by  the  Britons  to  Rome,  or  of  their  invitation  to  the  Germans  to 
help  them. 


THE  BREAK-UP  OF  THE  ROMAN   EMPIRE      91 

After  this  we  can  no  longer  think  of  the  island  as 
the  home  either  of  Britons  or  of  Romans.  It  became 
controlled  almost  entirely  by  the  Angles  and  Saxons 
from  Germany,  and  came  to  be  called  Angle  laiid^  which 
was  later  shortened  to  E7igland. 

The  Angles  and  Saxons  were  far  less  civilized  than 
those  other  German  tribes  that  had  overrun  France  and 
Italy,  and  under  their  devastating  hands  the  beautiful 
Roman  houses  and  public  buildings  in  England  were 
reduced  to  ruins  by  pillage  and  fire.  The  churches  that 
had  been  built  by  those  who  had  given  up  their  heathen 
gods  and  adopted  the  Christian  religion  were  destroyed 
and  their  priests  killed,  except  those  that  were  fortunate 
enough  to  escape  the  enemy  and  make  their  way  over 
the  sea  to  Ireland. 

Almost  all  traces  of  the  Roman  civilization  vanished. 
Some  Latin  names  still  survive  in  the  names  of  towns 
ending  in  caster^  or  cester,  like  Lancaster  or  Gloucester, 
made  from  the  Latin  word  castra  (a  camp),  and  marking 
the  site  of  some  old  Roman  camp  town.  The  Romans 
had  also  introduced  certain  trees  into  England  —  elms, 
chestnuts,  walnuts  —  and  some  vegetables,  such  as  rad- 
ishes and  peas;  but  aside  from  these  traces  and  those 
remains  spoken  of  in  Chapter  IV,  —  the  old  wall,  the 
roads,  and  the  remains  of  Roman  houses  are  the  chief  of 
these,  —  there  is  no  sign  to  be  found  in  the  island  to-day  of 
the  Roman  conquerors  who  once  ruled  over  the  country. 


S2        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Questions,  l.  In  what  ways  was  the  life  led  by  the  Germans  in  their 
own  country  different  from  that  which  they  found  when  they  crossed  over 
into  the  Roman  Empire  ?  2.  Why  were  the  Roman  buildings  destroyed 
and  the  books  of  the  Romans  neglected  and  lost  in  those  parts  of  the 
Empire  in  which  the  Germans  setded  ?  3.  Can  you  find  any  poems  or 
stories  written  about  King  Arthur  and  his  Round  Table  ? 

References.  Cheney.  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  32-34  (Britain 
after  the  departure  of  the  Romans) ;  pp.  37-40  (invasions  of  the  Angles 
and  Saxons)  ;  pp.  40-43  (Tacitus's  account  of  the  Germans)  ;  pp.  44-46 
(examples  of  Old  German  poetry).  Robinson.  Readings  in  European 
History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  35-39  (the  Huns  and  the  Goths)  ;  p.  39  (battle  of 
Adrianople).  Botsford.  The  Story  of  Rome  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
Tell  It,  pp.  208-2 1  o  (the  Germans).  Bates  and  Com  an.  English  History 
told  by  English  Poets,  p.  6  (I'he  Passing  of  Arthur). 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS  AND  THE  CONVERSION  OF  ENGLAND 

Beginnings  of  Christianity  in  the  time  of  Augustus.  Early  Christians  organize 
themselves  into  a  body  called  the  Church,  whose  head  was  the  Pope.  Pope 
Gregory  the  Cireat  sends  Augustine  to  convert  the  people  of  England.  Augus- 
tine and  his  monks  convert  the  people  of  Kent.  The  story  of  this  conver- 
sion told  by  The  Venerable  Bede.  The  founding  of  a  monastery  by  St.  Benedict. 
Bede's  life  in  an  English  monastery 

Section  14.   The  Beginnings  of  Christianity 

Early  Christians.  Not  many  years  after  the  first  Roman 
emperor,  Augustus,  had  died,  and  while  the  Roman 
Empire  was  still  at  its  height,  a  new  religion  appeared. 
It  was  at  first  confined  to  the  little  province  of  Judea,  in 
Palestine.  Here  a  few  followers  of  Jesus  came  together 
to  worship  God  in  a  new  way.  They  believed  that  the 
gods  and  goddesses  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  were 
evil  spirits  who  delighted  in  misleading  men,  and  they 
refused  to  offer  sacrifices  to  their  images. 

The  beginnings  of  this  new  religion,  called  Christianity, 
were  humble  and  obscure,  but  as  its  teachings  became 
known,  more  and  more  people  joined  its  ranks,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  some  of  the  more  eager  and  earnest  of 
its  followers  began  to  feel  that  they  ought  to  tell  all 
the  world  of  their  faith.     So  we  find  the  first  Christian 

R  93 


94        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

missionaries,  St.  Peter,  St.  Paul,  and  others,  going  out 
from  Judea  to  preach  the  gospel  in  Athens,  in  Corinth, 
in  Rome,  and  in  all  the  chief  cities  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 

Everywhere  they  gained  converts.  There  were  many 
serious  men  and  women  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
who  had  become  dissatisfied  with  their  own  religion, 
and  who  were  very  ready  to  adopt  the  new  and  beautiful 
belief  of  the  Christians,  that  good  deeds  on  earth  would 
receive  the  reward  of  a  happy,  never-ending  life  beyond 
the  grave. 

At  first  the  Christians  did  not  attract  much  attention 
from  the  Roman  officials.  They  seemed  to  be  quiet  peo- 
ple, occupied  only  with  their  own  affairs  and  content  if 
they  were  allowed  to  hold  their  religious  services  undis- 
turbed. It  was  their  habit  to  come  together  for  these 
services  in  a  secret  meeting  which  they  called  the  brother- 
hood, or  Church.  They  also  aided  one  another  and  cared 
for  the  sick,  the  unfortunate,  and  the  needy  among  them, 
as  real  brothers  would.  They  did  not  enter  into  the 
pleasures  that  most  Romans  enjoyed,  never  attended 
the  shows  in  the  circus  or  amphitheater,  and  showed  in 
other  ways  their  disapproval  of  such  amusements. 

Naturally  they  soon  began  to  be  disliked  for  keeping 
to  themselves  in  this  fashion,  and  for  looking  down  on 
the  manner  of  life  of  the  people  about  them ;  but  there 
was  no  interference  with  their  doings  until  it  was  found 


THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS  95 

that  they  steadfastly  refused  to  obey  the  universal  order 
to  worship  the  emperor.  They  declared  that  their  religion 
forbade  their  worshiping  any  but  their  own  God.  This 
roused  the  suspicions  of  the  Roman  ofificials.  They  con- 
cluded that  people  who  would  not  obey  the  laws  of  the 
Empire  must  be  conspiring  against  it. 

It  was  in  order  to  put  a  stop  to  this  that  the  Roman 
ofificials  began  those  persecutions  of  which  we  hear  so 
much  in  the  early  history  of  the  Christian  Church.  The 
followers  of  Jesus  were  sometimes  deprived  of  their 
houses  and  property,  and  in  times  of  excitement  they  were 
dragged  through  the  streets  and  stoned,  crucified,  burned, 
or  thrown  into  the  arena  of  the  amphitheater  to  be  torn 
to  pieces  by  wild  beasts. 

Growth  of  Christianity.  However,  this  persecution, 
terrible  as  it  was,  did  not  prevent  people  from  joining 
the  ranks  of  the  Christians.  Indeed,  it  seemed  only  to 
make  their  religion  more  popular,  for  the  number  of 
converts  grew  rapidly.  People  of  all  nations  —  Greeks, 
Italians,  Gauls,  and  Britons  —  joined  them,  until  the 
Christian  Church  spread  throughout  western  Europe.  At 
its  head  was  the  Pope.  His  title  "  Pope  "  came  from  the 
Latin  vjord papa,  meaning  "father," 


96        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Section  15.   The  Conversion  of  England 

Gregory  the  Great.  One  day  a  monk  —  who  later  be- 
came one  of  the  most  famous  of  the  popes,  Gregory  the 
Great  —  was  passing  the  market  place  in  Rome  and 
chanced  to  notice  some  boys  who  were  being  sold  there 
for  slaves.  They  were  so  beautiful,  with  their  fair  faces 
and  their  fine,  soft  golden  hair,  that  he  asked  who  they 
were.  When  he  was  told  that  they  were  Angles,  he  re- 
plied, "  They  seem  more  like  angels !  "  They  came,  in 
truth,  from  England  and  were  descendants  of  the  Ger- 
man tribe  of  Angles  that  had  come  over  with  Hengist 
and  Horsa  to  the  island  of  Britain  in  449,  almost  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  before  the  time  of  Pope  Gregory. 

Gregory  no  sooner  saw  the  fair-haired  slaves  from  Eng- 
land than  he  began  to  plan  how  these  heathen  people 
might  be  converted  to  Christianity.  Later,  when  he  be- 
came pope,  he  took  steps  to  carry  out  his  ardent  desire. 

Augustine  and  his  mission.  He  chose  for  the  work  a 
company  of  forty  monks,  under  the  leadership  of  Augus- 
tine, one  of  his  friends,  who  was  the  head  of  a  Roman 
monastery.  The  monks  were  very  reluctant  at  first  to  go 
on  so  toilsome  and  dangerous  an  expedition  into  a  coun- 
try inhabited  by  barbarous,  warlike  men,  of  whose  very 
language  they  were  ignorant ;  but  with  Pope  Gregory's 
encouragement  they  took  heart,  and,  after  the  long 
journey  across   France  and  the  English  Channel,  they 


THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS 


97 


landed  on  the  shores  of  England  in  the  summer  of  597, 
to  begin  their  work  of  making  Christians  of  the  German 
tribes  that  had  settled  there. 

All  these  tribes  were  now  coming  to  be  called  English, 
after  the  largest  tribe,  the  Angles ;  and  the  country,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  called  Angle  land,  or  England.  The  people 
were  still  living  in 
separate  tribes,  some- 
what as  they  had  lived 
in  Germany,  each 
tribe  under  its  chief. 
In  the  north  was  a 
kingdom  called  North- 
umbria,  in  the  south 
was  the  kingdom  of 
Kent,  and  scattered  throughout  the  country  were  other 
kingdoms.    There  w^ere  seven  of  them  altogether. 

It  was  from  Ethelbert,  king  of  Kent,  that  Augustine 
and  his  missionaries  asked  permission  to  enter  England 
and  preach  Christianity.  They  had  landed  in  Kent  be- 
cause it  was  easiest  for  them  to  reach  its  shores  from 
France,  and  they  felt  more  sure  of  a  favorable  answer 
from  Ethelbert  because  his  wife,  Bertha,  was  already  a 
Christian.  Queen  Bertha,  called  Bertha  Broadfoot,  was 
a  Frankish  lady.  Her  father  had  permitted  her  to  marry 
Ethelbert  and  go  to  live  among  a  pagan  people  only 
on   condition   that   she   should    be   allowed    to   continue 


St.  Martin's  Church,  Canterbury,  built 
ON  THE  Site  of  Queen  Bertha's  Chapel 


98        INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

worshiping  in  her  own  way  and  to  take  her  own  Christian 
priest  with  her  from  France.  In  Canterbury,  where  the 
king's  palace  was,  she  had  a  httle  chapel  in  which  her 
priest  held  Christian  services. 

When  Augustine  and  his  missionaries  sent  to  ask 
Ethelbert  if  they  might  tell  him  about  the  new  religion 
and  preach  it  to  his  people,  the  king  granted  their  re- 
quest on  condition  that  whatever  they  had  to  say  should 
be  said  out  of  doors,  for  fear  that  they  were  intending  to 
practice  some  magic  arts  on  him.  Magic,  according  to 
heathen  belief,  was  less  likely  to  work  harm  outside  the 
four  walls  of  a  house  than  within.  So  the  king  took  his  seat 
in  the  open  air,  and  Augustine  came  toward  him  with  his 
procession  of  monks,  singing  and  carrying  before  them  a 
picture  of  Christ  and  a  silver  cross  glistening  in  the  sun- 
shine. At  the  bidding  of  the  king  they  sat  down,  and 
after  offering  prayers  for  him  and  his  people,  they  told 
how  beautiful  was  the  Christian  faith,  since  it  made  men's 
lives  better  on  earth  and  opened  the  doors  of  heaven  to 
them  when  they  died. 

Ethelbert  listened  to  them  attentively,  but  said  that 
he  could  not  give  up  his  own  religion  without  bestowing 
more  thought  on  the  matter.  He  gave  Augustine  per- 
mission to  live  in  Canterbury,  however,  and  to  carry  on 
his  missionary  work  in  any  way  he  chose. 

Thereafter  Augustine  and  his  band  went  about  preach- 
ing  Christianity,  leading  lives   of  fasting,  poverty,  and 


THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS  99 

prayer,  and  constantly  working  to  win  over  the  English 
from  their  pagan  beliefs.  They  held  services  and  baptized 
converts  in  Queen  Bertha's  little  church  of  St.  Martin's  in 
Canterbury.  In  due  time  many  men  and  women  adopted 
the  new  religion.  King  Ethelbert  himself  became  one  of 
their  converts  and  helped  them  in  their  work. 

This  is  the  story  of  the  bringing  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion into  England,  as  we  learn  it  from  a  history  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  England,  written  by  an  English  monk 
named  Bede.  Much  that  Bede  tells  us  is  of  especial  value, 
because  he  lived  only  about  seventy  years  after  the  com- 
ing of  the  Christian  missionaries.  This  makes  it  quite 
possible  for  him  to  have  learned  about  them  at  first- 
hand from  men  who  had  seen  and  known  both  King 
Ethelbert  and  Augustine.  He  tells  us,  too,  that  he  al- 
ways took  great  care  to  ask  information  from  none  but 
those  whom  he  believed  trustworthy. 

Section  16.    Bede  and  the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict 

The  first  monks.  In  early  times  men  who  had  become 
converted  to  the  Christian  religion  and  who  repented  of 
their  past  sins  and  wished  to  escape  further  temptations, 
sometimes  separated  themselves  from  their  families  and 
friends  and  went  away  to  live  a  life  of  solitude.  Many 
of  them  took  refuge  in  the  desert,  in  Egypt,  following  the 
example  of  an  early  Christian  hermit,  St.  Anthony,  who 
left  his  home  and  people  and  retired  to  a  solitary  cave  in 


lOO      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  wilderness.  Sometimes  these  holy  men  would  join 
wath  others  w4io  wished  to  live  the  same  life  and,  build- 
ing their  little  cells  or  rooms  near  one  another,  would 
form  a  community  called  a  monastery.^ 

The  rule  of  St.  Benedict.  About  five  centuries  after  the 
founding  of  the  Christian  religion  a  young  Italian  named 
Benedict  with  a  company  of  monks  built  a  monastery 
which  became  so  famous  that  hundreds  of  others  were 
founded  and  conducted  according  to  the  rule  that  Bene- 
dict established.  The  monastery  in  which  Bede  lived  was 
one  built  by  Benedictine  monks.  Convents,  too,  were  es- 
tablished, to  which  women  might  retire  from  the  world. 

The  rules  that  St.  Benedict  laid  down  for  his  monks 
were  intended  to  teach  the  beauty  of  obedience  and  work. 
The  monks  w^ere  to  elect  one  of  their  number  to  be  their 
abbot,  or  superior,  and  to  him  they  were  to  pay  implicit 
obedience. 

St.  Benedict  said  that  working  was  as  good  as  praying, 
so  all  the  time  that  was  not  taken  up  in  eating,  sleeping, 
and  prayer  was  divided  into  periods  of  labor  and  religious 
reading.  As  every  monastery  had  land  about  it  to  be  cul- 
tivated, it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  farm  and  garden,  as  well 
as  the  kitchen,  the  bakery,  the  mill,  and  the  making  of 
their  clothing  and  shoes,  would  give  the  monks  plenty  of 
chance  to  work  with  their  hands.  Moreover,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, they  were  to  make  everything  they  used,  so  that 

1  "  Monastery  "  comes  from  a  Greek  word  meaning  "  alone." 


THE  EARLY   CHRISTIANS 


lOI 


they  should  not  have  to  go  outside  the  monastery  gates. 
Each  monk  was  suppHed  with  a  knife,  a  stylus,  a  writing 
tablet,  a  needle,  and  shoes  and  stockings. 

The  rules  also  enjoined  on  them  to  speak  little  with 
one  another,  to  care  for  the  sick,  to  read  aloud  during 


Monastery  at  Vallombrosa,  Italy 

meals,  and  to  give  lessons  to  all  the  boys  and  young  men 
who  lived  in  the  monastery.  As  we  shall  see  later,  mon- 
asteries were  for  many  centuries  almost  the  only  place 
where  there  was  any  studying  or  teaching. 

Bede.    Bede,  who  wrote  the  story  of  St.  Augustine,  was 
placed  in  a  monastery,  in  the  north  of  England,  when  he 


I02      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

was  a  little  boy  of  seven,  and  all  his  life  he  lived  as  a 
monk,  loved  and  honored  by  those  about  him.  In  his 
writings  he  tells  how  his  days  were  spent  in  the  quiet 
sheltered  convent.  He  took  part  in  services  in  chapel, 
singing,   praying,  and   preaching;    he   took   his   turn   at 


Cloisters  of  an  Italian  Monastery 

cooking  and  cleaning  in  the  house ;  tended  the  cows  and 
sheep ;  gave  the  calves  and  lambs  their  milk ;  helped  in 
the  plowing  and  planting  of  garden  and  fields  and  in 
gathering  the  harvests;  visited  the  poor  and  sick  of  the 
neighborhood ;  and  shared  in  the  work  of  copying  books. 
He  studied  constantly  whatever  books  he  could  find  — 
history,  poetry,  treatises  on  mathematics,  and,  above  all, 
the  Bible.    Young  monks  came  to  his  monastery,  even 


THE  EARLY   CHRISTIANS  103 

from  distant  countries,  to  study  with  him,  for  he  was 
counted  the  most  learned  man  of  the  times,  and  his  piety 
had  gained  him  the  title  of  The  Venerable  Bede.  He 
wrote  many  books  himself,  all  in  Latin,  the  most  impor- 
tant being  the  history  of  the  Church,  already  mentioned. 
When  he  died  he  was  engaged  in  translating  the  New 
Testament  from  Latin  into  English,  for  the  use  of  the 
common  people,  who  did  not  know  Latin. 

Questions.  1.  In  what  century  did  Pope  Gregory  live  ?  2.  In  what 
year  did  the  seventh  century  begin  ?  3.  Was  the  English  of  Bede's  time 
like  that  which  we  speak  to-day  ? 

References.  Robinson.  Readings  in  European  History,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
49-5 1  (conversion  of  Kent);  pp.  52-53  (conversion  of  Northumbria)  ; 
p.  53  (conversion  of  Germany);  p.  41  (a  monk).  Botsford.  The  Story 
of  Rome  as  the  Greeks  and  Romans  Tell  It,  pp.  31 1-3 15  (thoughts  of 
the  pagan  emperor,  Marcus  Aurelius).  Old  South  Leaflets,  Vol.  V,  p.  265 
(St.  Augustine).  Batks  and  Coman.  English  History  Told  by  English 
Poets,  p.  1 7  (Glad  Tidings). 


CHAPTER  VII 

TWO  GREAT  KINGS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES^ 

Charlemagne  a  hero  of  romance.  His  conquests.  His  other  achievements. 
Charlemagne  crowned  ''  Emperor  of  the  Romans."  Coming  of  the  Northmen 
to  France  and  England.  Alfred  becomes  king  of  England.  His  boyhood. 
His  love  of  learning.     His  care  for  his    people.     England    at    the   time  of 

Alfred's  death 

Section  17.    Charlemagne 

Charlemagne's  realm.  The  kingdom  that  Clovis,  chief 
of  the  Franks,  had  founded  in  Gaul  came  to  be  called 
Frankland  and  then  France  (see  p.  86).  This  kingdom 
later  became  a  vast  and  important  domain  under  the 
great  Frankish  king,  Charlemagne,  who  came  to  the 
throne  in  771. 

Charlemagne  (Charles  the  Great)  is  one  of  the  great 
heroes  of  the  world.  He  was  emperor  over  a  vast  realm 
covering  all  of  France,  Germany,  Austria,  Belgium, 
Holland,  and  almost  all  of  Italy,  and  he  ruled  it  with 
such  royal  vigor  and  wisdom  that  long  after  his  death 
songs  were  sung  and  tales  told  recounting  his  mar- 
velous feats,  —  that  he  could  vault  over  four  horses 
standing  together,  that  he  could  cleave  an  armed  knight 

1  "  Middle  Ages  "  is  the  name  commonly  given  to  the  thousand  years  from 
the  break-up  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  about  1500. 

104 


TWO  GREAT  KINGS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     105 

from  head  to  waist  at  a  single  blow,  that  with  one  hand 
he  could  lift  a  man  as  high  as  his  head.  One  fable  even 
recounts  that  when  he  pursued  an  army  of  Moham- 
medans into  Spain  to  punish  them  for  the  death  of  his 
beloved  young  friend  and  paladin,  Roland,  the  sun  stood 
still  for  three  days  to  give  him  time  to  overtake  the 
enemy. 

Charlemagne  as  a  warrior.  It  was  Charlemagne's  suc- 
cess in  war,  and  especially  his  victories  over  the  Moham- 
medans, that  made  him  so  wonderful  a  hero  to  the  poets 
who  told  these  tales.  Besides  driving  the  Mohammedans 
from  France,  he  waged  war  almost  constantly  against 
the  pagan  Germans  that  threatened  the  borders  of  his 
realm,  and  he  was  forced  also  to  be  always  on  his  guard 
against  trouble  within  his  own  boundaries  from  unruly 
dukes  and  counts. 

Many  of  the  stories  of  Charlemagne's  prowess  and 
adventures  we  cannot  believe,  of  course.  But  there  is 
also  much  recorded  that  we  know  is  true  and  that  must 
cause  us  to  regard  him  as  one  of  the  really  great  rulers 
of  the  world. 

A  monk  named  Einhard,  who  lived  at  Charlemagne's 
court  and  acted  as  his  private  secretary,  wrote  a  biography 
of  him  from  which  we  learn  what  manner  of  man  he  was 
and  what  he  did  to  improve  conditions  for  his  people. 

Charlemagne *s  appearance.  In  appearance  Charlemagne 
was  a  kingly  figure,  tall  and  strong  beyond  the  common. 


io6     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

His  glance  was  so  compelling  that  none  could  defy  him, 
and  yet  his  eyes  were  so  bright  and  his  smile  so  pleasant 
that  every  one  found  it  easy  to  do  his  bidding. 

If  we  picture  him  to  ourselves  dressed  in  the  Prankish 
fashion  —  linen  trousers  and  shirt,  a  tunic  fringed  with 
silk,  and  a  blue  cloak  over  his  shoulders  —  we  shall  have 
some  idea  of  how  this  great  emperor  looked  on  ordinary 
occasions.  It  was  only  at  state  ceremonies  that  he  wore 
the  richly  embroidered  robes,  jeweled  shoes,  and  diadem 
of  gold  and  precious  stones  that  marked  his  rank. 

Einhard  tells  us  that  this  great  emperor  took  the 
utmost  care  in  the  education  of  his  children,  and  that  he 
was  so  fond  of  them  that  he  did  not  like  them  ever  to  be 
out  of  his  sight.  He  took  them  with  him  on  his  jour- 
neys whenever  he  could,  the  boys  riding  with  him,  and 
his  daughters,  in  care  of  a  bodyguard,  riding  behind. 
At  home  he  was  with  them  as  much  as  possible,  and 
often  attended  the  school  that  he  had  for  them  in  the 
palace.  Charlemagne  himself,  while  he  could  speak 
Latin  and  loved  to  be  read  to,  could  never  learn  to  write 
more  than  his  own  name,  although  for  years  he  kept 
a  tablet  under  his  pillow  so  that  he  could  practice 
making  letters  when  he  was  wakeful. 

The  whole  world,  indeed,  was  ignorant  in  Charlemagne's 
day  and  for  many  centuries  after  him.  Almost  no  one 
could  read  or  write.  But  Charlemagne  greatly  desired 
to  give  his  people  opportunities  for  learning,  and  so,  in 


TWO  GREAT  KINGS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     107 

the  monasteries  throughout  his  kingdom,  he  had  schools 
to  which  boys  Hving  near  might  come  and  learn  what 
the  monks  could  teach  them. 

Charlemagne  and  the  Church.  Another  great  desire  of 
Charlemagne  was  that  all  the  world  should  become 
Christianized.  Whenever  he  went  out  in  his  campaigns 
against  the  Germans,  he  took  with  his  vast  army  a  great 
number  of  priests  whose  duty  it  was  to  persuade  the 
conquered  people  by  gifts  and  friendly  words  to  become 
Christians.  The  barbarians  were  required  to  build  mon- 
asteries near  their  homes,  and  to  promise  to  support  the 
monks  who  came  to  live  in  them.  Charlemagne  made 
them  feel  that  it  was  as  important  for  them  to  obey  the 
laws  of  the  Church  as  it  was  for  them  to  obey  him,  their 
emperor.  He  built  beautiful  churches  and  monasteries 
in  every  part  of  his  kingdom,  and  everywhere,  in  every 
way  he  could,  he  helped  and  encouraged  Christians. 

In  his  longing  to  reestablish  the  ancient  glory  of 
Rome,  and  to  increase  the  splendor  of  the  Church  of 
St.  Peter  there,  he  loaded  the  Church  with  rich  gifts 
of  silver,  gold,  and  precious  stones,  and  it  was  here  that, 
toward  the  end  of  his  reign,  he  was  crowned  by  the 
reigning  pope  and  saluted  as  "  Emperor  of  the  Romans." 

Attacks  from  Northmen.  Before  Charlemagne's  death 
there  had  begun  to  appear  in  that  part  of  his  great 
empire  which  bordered  on  the  North  Sea  and  the 
English  Channel  an  enemy  who  made  attacks  from  the 


io8      INTRODUCTION   TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

sea  on  the  villages  and  towns  of  the  coast.  Of  this 
enemy  we  shall  learn  more  in  the  next  section,  for  they 
harassed  the  English  coast  as  well  as  the  French  for 
many  years. 

Section  i8.    King  Alfred  of  England 

Alfred  and  the  Danes.    It  was  toward  the  end  of  the 

eighth  century  that  this  fierce  enemy  from  the  north, 
called  Danes,  or  Northmen,  first  attacked  the  shores  of 
England,  sailing  across  the  sea  from  Norway,  Sweden, 
and  Denmark. , 

England  was  still  made  up  of  a  number  of  little 
kingdoms,  each  one  struggling  for  the  mastery  of  the 
country.  For  almost  a  hundred  years  king  after  king 
fought  with  the  troublesome  Northmen,  but  none  was 
successful  until  King  Alfred  came  to  the  throne,  in  871, 
just  a  hundred  years  after  Charlemagne,  the  great  ruler 
across  the  Channel,  had  become  emperor. 

Alfred  proved  himself  so  brave  and  able  a  commander 
that  before  eight  years  had  passed  he  had  brought  about 
a  treaty  of  peace  w^ith  the  Danes.  By  this  treaty  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  eastern  part  of  England  was 
turned  over  to  them,  on  condition  that  they  stop  fight- 
ing and  plundering  and  leave  all  the  rest  of  the  island 
undisturbed. 

King  Alfred  thus  began  his  reign  with  a  great  service 
to  his  country,  and  all  his  life  he  continued  to  devote 


TWO  GREAT  KINGS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     109 

himself  to  the  good  of  his  subjects.  His  one  aim,  as  he 
said,  was  "  to  leave  to  the  men  that  came  after  a  remem- 
brance of  him  in  good  works."  We  are  fortunate  enough 
to  know  a  good  deal  about  him,  as  we  have  the  story 
of  his  life  written  by  one  who  lived  at  the  same  time,  and 
who  had  the  greatest  admiration  and  affection  for  him. 

This  was  an  English  bishop  named  Asser,  who  begins 
his  account  with  stories  of  the  king's  boyhood.  He 
describes  him  as  a  charming  child,  more  graceful  and 
attractive  than  his  brothers,  and  beloved  above  them  all 
by  every  one  who  knew  him.  One  day  their  mother 
showed  the  children  a  beautifully  illuminated  little  book 
of  poems,  which  she  said  she  would  give  to  the  one  who 
should  first  learn  to  recite  a  poem  to  her;  and  Alfred, 
although  he  was  the  youngest,  w^as  the  first  to  ask  if  he 
might  try  for  the  prize.  Before  many  days  he  came  to 
his  mother  and  said  over  to  her  one  of  the  poems  that  he 
had  learned  perfectly.   So  the  little  book  was  given  to  him. 

Besides  these  verses  he  learned  with  great  ease  many 
other  poems,  psalms,  and  prayers,  from  hearing  them 
recited  to  him.  If  he  had  had  good  teachers  when  he 
was  young,  he  would  have  been  even  a  more  learned 
man  than  he  was,  but  there  seems  to  have  been  no  one 
at  his  father's  court  who  could  teach  him. 

Nevertheless  he  had  a  great  love  of  learning  and  was 
eager  that  not  only  he  himself  but  all  his  subjects  should 
be  taught.    When  he  became  king  he  had  a  school  in  his 


no     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

palace,  like  Charlemagne's,  where  his  own  children,  as 
well  as  those  of  the  bishops  and  noblemen  of  his  court, 
were  instructed  in  the  few  studies  that  were  then  taught. 
All    the    books   were    in    Latin,    so    the    children    were 


Old  Saxon  Church  —  the  Only  Complete  One  surviving 


taught  to  read  Latin  and  to  recite  Latin  psalms  and 
other  portions  of  the  Bible,  as  well  as  English  poems. 
When  the  king  could  not  find  enough  teachers  in 
England  for  his  school,  he  sent  over  to  France  for  any 
learned  men  who  might  be  willing  to  come  to  his  court 


TWO  GREAT  KINGS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     iii 

and  teach ;  and  he  too,  whenever  he  had  the  leisure  to 
hsten  to  them,  either  day  or  night,  had  them  read  to  him, 
until  he  became  well  acquainted  with  many  books.  He 
did  not  learn  to  read  Latin  himself  until  he  was  almost 
forty.  Then,  as  he  desired  so  ardently  that  his  subjects 
should  be  able  to  read,  he  himself  set  about  translating 
Latin  books  into  English  for  the  benefit  of  those  of  his 
people  who  knew  no  Latin.  Whenever,  in  making  his 
translations,  he  came  across  anything  he  thought  they 
would  be  too  ignorant  to  understand,  he  took  time  to 
write  down  an  explanation  of  it  for  them. 

Besides  his  translations,  Alfred  had  a  history  of  the 
English  people  written,  from  the  time  when  they  first  came 
over  to  Britain  until  his  own  reign.  This  book,  which  is 
called  the  "  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,"  was  the  first  impor- 
tant one  to  be  written  in  English.  It  was  continued  by 
other  writers  for  many  years  after  Alfred's  death.  Even 
now,  when  historians  wish  to  write  about  the  English 
people  as  they  were  in  those  early  times,  they  must  de- 
pend upon  this  old  chronicle  that  King  Alfred  began  a 
thousand  years  ago. 

He  was  always  trying  to  improve  the  condition  of 
his  people.  There  was  endless  fighting  to  be  done  to 
keep  the  Danes  from  devastating  the  country,  for  they 
were  constantly  breaking  the  treaty  he  had  made  with 
them.  Yet  he  organized  his  army  in  such  a  way  that 
only  half  of  the  men  would  have  to  be  away  from  home 


112     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

at  a  time.  While  one  half  were  away  on  duty  the  others 
could  stay  at  home  and  attend  to  their  flocks  and  their 
farming. 

Alfred  was  a  special  friend  to  the  poor  of  his  realm. 
The  rich  men  tould  protect  themselves,  but  the  poor,  he 
said,  "  have  no  friend  but  their  king."  In  deciding  the 
many  disputes  that  were  brought  before  him  he  always 
favored  the  poor  and  weak  as  far  as  possible,  and  all 
men  thought  him  a  fair  and  just  judge. 

One  of  the  stories  told  of  him  is  how  he  used  candles 
to  measure  the  time  by,  and  how  he  invented  a  lantern. 
There  were  no  clocks  in  those  remote  times,  and  men 
told  the  time  by  the  sun.  But  this  did  not  satisfy  King 
Alfred,  since  it  gave  him  no  means  of  telling  the  time  at 
night  or  in  stormy  weather.  So  he  experimented  until 
he  found  out  how  long  a  candle  must  be  to  burn  for  four 
hours,  and  then  had  them  made  of  this  length,  so  that  six  of 
them  would  last  for  exactly  twenty-four  hours.  Moreover, 
he  marked  off  spaces  on  them  so  that  he  could  divide  his 
time  into  even  smaller  periods.  But  then  he  found  that 
the  wind  that  came  through  the  doors  and  the  cracks  in 
the  walls  of  the  house,  or  under  his  tent  when  he  was 
away  fighting  the  Danes,  blew  out  the  lights  or  made 
the  candles  gutter  and  burn  unevenly.  He  saw  that  he 
would  have  to  find  some  way  of  protecting  them  against 
a  draft  of  air.  After  much  thought  he  had  some  white 
oxhorn  cut  into  sheets  so  thin  that  they  were  transparent, 


TWO  GREAT  KINGS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     113 

and  these  he  set  on  a  wooden  frame  around  the  candles. 
This  ingenious  device  kept  the  candle  clock  burning 
brightly  and  steadily  and  proved  also  to  be  a  very  good 
sort  of  lantern. 

Alfred  gave  much  of  his  time  to  prayers  and  medita- 
tion. He  felt  indeed  that  he  ought  to  devote  half  of  each 
day  to  the  service  of  the  Church.  He  also  gave  a  great 
part  of  his  wealth  to  the  building  and  support  of  churches 
and  monasteries,  so  many  of  which  had  been  destroyed 
by  the  Danes.  Three  new  abbeys  were  established  by 
the  king,  and  others  were  rebuilt  from  the  ruins  left  by 
the  Northmen. 

In  all  the  records  and  stories  that  have  come  down  to 
us  nothing  but  good  has  been  written  of  this  great  and 
noble  king.  "No  other  king  ever  showed  forth  so  well 
in  his  own  person  the  truth  of  the  saying, '  He  that  would 
be  first  among  you,  let  him  be  the  servant  of  all.'"^ 

In  the  year  900  King  Alfred  the  Great  died.    In  1900, 

a  thousand  years  later,  the  English  people  had  meetings 

and  pageants  in  his  honor,  for  they  are  glad  to  recall  and 

to  pay  tribute  to  the  greatest  and   wisest  of  the  early 

rulers  of  their  country. 

Questions.  1.  Did  children  go  to  school  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne 
and  Alfred  the  Great,  and  where  ?  2.  What  is  the  derivation  of  the  name 
"  Charlemagne  "  ?  3.  Tell  something  about  Roland.  4.  What  was  a  paladin  ? 
5.  What  seems  to  you  the  best  of  King  Alfred's  "  good  works  "  ?  6.  What 
great  men  of  our  times  do  we  hold  in  honor  ? 

1  S.  R.  Gardiner,  A  Student's  History  of  England,  p.  62. 


114     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

References.  Einhard.  Life  of  Charlemagne.  Cheyney.  Readings 
in  English  History,  pp.  58-63  (extracts  from  the  ''  Anglo-Saxon  Chroni- 
cle "  in  regard  to  the  attack  of  the  Danes)  ;  pp.  63-69  (Alfred  the  Great) ; 
pp.  69-72  (dialogue  between  teacher  and  pupils  in  Anglo-Saxon  times) ; 
pp.  80-82  (Alfred's  "dooms"  or  laws).  Old  South  Leaflets,  Vol.  V, 
p.  245  (King  Alfred's  account  of  Europe).  Bates  and  Coman.  English 
History  Told  by  English  Poets,  p.  18  (Alfred  and  his  Descendants). 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  VIKINGS 

The  misery  that  the  Vikings,  or  Northmen,  caused  the  French  in  the  ninth 
century.  Why  we  are  interested  in  the  Northmen.  The  beauty  and  skillful 
workmanship  of  their  relics.  The  Norse  sagas  and  what  they  tell  us  of  the 
religion,  pleasures,  and  business  of  the  Vikings.  Iceland.  How  the  Danish 
Northmen  troubled  England.    Canute,  the  Dane,  becomes  king  of  England 

Section  19.   What  we  know  of  the  Vikings 

Description  of  the  Vikings.  The  invaders  w^ho  made  the 
EngHsh  so  much  trouble  in  Alfred's  time  were  distant 
kinsmen  of  the  English  —  a  branch  of  the  same  German 
people.  They  lived  in  the  countries  lying  beyond  the 
North  Sea  (Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden)  and  w^ere 
given  various  names  by  the  people  whose  lands  they  in- 
vaded —  Northmen,  Norsemen,  Normans,  and  Danes. 
Their  own  name  for  themselves  was  Vikings,  a  word  that 
had  nothing  to  do  with  kings,  as  one  might  think  at 
first  sight,  but  came  perhaps  from  the  Norse  word  vik 
meaning  a  "  bay  "  or  "  inlet,"  because  the  ships  on  which 
they  spent  so  much  of  their  lives  were  anchored  in  the 
bays  and  inlets. 

The  Vikings  were  tall,  stalwart  men,  with  long  yellow 
hair  and  bright  blue  eyes  —  men  who  loved  to  ride  the 
sea  and  battle  with  its  stormy  waves ;  and  in  some  wild 


Ii6     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

tempest  of  wind  and  rain,  when  their  victims  were  least 
expecting  them,  to  swoop  down  in  their  long  boats  upon 
a  helpless  coast  village,  burn  the  homes,  slay  the  men, 
women,  and  children  of  the  little  town,  and  carry  off  \o 
their  ships  all  the  sheep  and  cattle  and  the  store  of  grain 
and  provisions. 

This  was  the  sort  of  trouble  they  brought  upon  the 
people  of  France  and  England  almost  every  year  during 
the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries.  They  grew  bolder  with 
every  attack,  and  finally  no  longer  confined  themselves 
to  the  towns  on  the  coast  but  went  far  inland,  where 
they  pillaged  villages  and  towns  and  carried  away  rich 
treasures  from  churches  and  monasteries.  Often  they 
settled  down  for  the  season  on  an  island  near  the  coast, 
setting  out  from  it  for  their  raids  and  escaping  back  to 
it  with  their  load  of  plunder,  leaving  behind  them 
burning  villages  and  monasteries,  ruined  crops  and 
desolate  people.  They  seemed  only  a  terrible  enemy, 
merciless,  unconquerable,  and  incapable  of  good. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  this  gloomy  picture  of  them, 
we  are  bound  to  feel  that  there  must  have  been  some- 
thing fine  in  men  so  daring  and  of  such  an  unconquerable 
spirit.  And  we  are  the  more  interested  to  learn  what 
else  can  be  found  out  about  them,  because  many  of  us 
have  their  blood  in  our  veins  and  are  descended  from 
these  very  Vikings  who  made  so  much  trouble  for 
France  and  England  before  they  finally  settled  down  in 


THE  VIKINGS  117 

those  countries  and  in  time  became  a  part  of  the  French 
and  EngHsh  nations. 

We  therefore  have  good  reason  for  some  further  curi- 
osity about  the  Vikings.  How  did  they  occupy  them- 
selves at  home,  when  they  were  resting  from  their  raiding 
expeditions  to  the  south  .^  What  were  their  arts,  their 
customs,  and 
their  ways  of 
living  ?  We 
may  learn 
a  good  deal 
about  all  this 
from  their  rel- 
ics and  their      _^ 

•  ,•  Viking  Horse  Collar 

writmgs. 

Relics  of  the  Vikings.     Many    relics    of    the   Vikings 

have  been  found  in  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  and 

are   still   being  unearthed  every  year,  after  having  lain 

hidden  in  the  ground  for  all  these  centuries.   It  was  from 

their  relics,  you  will  remember,  that  we  learned  about  the 

earliest  inhabitants  of  Britain  and  other  countries,  and 

about  the  early  Britons  themselves,  and  still  later  about 

the  life  of  the  Romans  in  England.  The  relics  of  Norse 

workmanship  show  that  the  Northmen,  or  Vikings,  were 

not  nearly  so  highly  civilized  as  the  Romans,  yet  it  is 

very  clear  that  they  were  far  superior  to  the  barbarous 

early  Britons. 


Ii8     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

If  we  could  walk  through  the  museum  in  Copenhagen, 
the  capital  of  Denmark,  or  visit  the  collections  in  some 
of  the  cities  of  Norway  and  Sweden,  we  should 
see  case  after  case  containing  beautiful  and 
interesting  things,  all  made  by  the  early  North- 
men and  showing  their  skill  in  the  working 
of  gold  and  silver,  iron,  bronze,  glass,  and 
other  materials.  There  are  vessels  of  gold 
and  silver  engraved  with  exquisite  designs 
IWIi  ^^^  bronze  bowls  ornamented  with  fine  trac- 
ery in  red  or  blue  enamel;  there  are  heavy 
twisted  rings  of  gold,  gold  hairpins  set  with 
garnets,  and  bracelets,  pendants,  and  neck 
rings,  all  of  heavy  gold  with  elegant  decora- 
tion ;  there  are  iron  swords  with  delicate  de- 
signs in  gold ;  lovely  glass  vases,  colored  blue 
or  green  and  sometimes  ornamented  with 
paintings;  finely  wrought  gilt  horse  collars 
and  golden  spurs ;  and  even  pieces  of  cloth 
woven  in  charming  patterns  with  gold  and 
i    j  silver  thread. 

I    J  Norse  runes.    On  many  Norse  relics  letters 

i    I  are   engraved    or  traced.     These   letters   the 

;   I  Vikings    called    runes,    their    name    for    the 

\/  letters   of   their   alphabet.     Only   the   priests 

,,  '  knew    their   meaninjr.     To    the    rest    of    the 

Viking  ^ 

Sword         people,  who  were   uneducated,  they  seemed 


THE  VIKINGS 


119 


full  of  mystery  and  were  supposed  to  have  a  magic  power. 
For  this  reason  they  were  carved  for  good  luck  on  rings 
and  swords  and  drinking  cups,  on  the  lintels  of  doors, 
and,  indeed,  wherever  a  place  could  be  found  for  them 
—  sometimes  even  on  great  rocks  or  monumental  stones. 

The  Norse  sagas.  The 
writings  of  the  North- 
men are  in  the  form  of 
stories,  called  in  the  Norse 
language  sagas.  These 
sagas,  or  tales,  were  re- 
peated over  and  over  dur- 
ing the  long  northern 
winter  nights,  and  handed 
down  from  father  to  son 
for  many  generations  be- 
fore they  were  ever  put 
into  writing.  The  oldest 
of  them  tell  the  tales  of 
the  ancient  Viking  heroes, 
who,  like  the  heroes  of  the  Greeks,  were  thought  of  as 
half  divine,  half  human.  Others  tell  of  the  lives  of  the 
great  Viking  kings  of  early  days.  Lastly,  many  sagas  are 
tales  of  later  Norse  chiefs,  of  their  families,  their  deeds, 
and  their  customs  —  tales  that  were  first  told  by  men  who 
lived  at  the  same  time  as  the  people  they  tell  of.  These 
are  as  reliable  and  trustworthy  a  source  of  information  as 


A  Ruxic  Stone 


I20     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

any  history  of  the  time  could  be.  When  we  read  them  it 
seems  as  if  we  ourselves  were  living  in  the  country  of  the 
Vikings,  as  if  we  were  well  acquainted  with  the  persons 
who  are  told  about,  and  were  looking  on  with  our  own 
eyes  at  their  weddings  and  banquets,  their  games  and  their 
battles,  and  all  the  business  and  pleasure  of  their  lives. 

The  poetic  language  in  which  their  sagas  were  written 
makes  clear  that  the  Northmen  were  not  untouched  by 
the  beauty  about  them,  that  they  could  feel  and  express 
the  wild  and  romantic  splendor  of  their  native  land  —  of 
its  snowy  mountains  and  green  valleys,  its  dark  pine 
forests  and  deep  blue  fiords,  its  bright  rushing  brooks  and 
gleaming  mountain  pools,  and,  most  of  all,  of  the  tossing 
surf  and  the  gray  stormy  billows  of  their  northern  ocean. 

We  learn  too  from  the  Norse  sagas,  as  well  as  from 
the  English  and  French  chronicles,  that  the  Northmen 
were  men  of  marvelous  courage  and  daring.  No  danger 
daunted  them ;  fear  they  knew  not  the  meaning  of ; 
nothing  in  heaven  or  earth  had  terrors  for  them.  Along 
with  this  daring  courage  went  the  virtues  of  warm  hos- 
pitality and  loyalty  to  friends,  joined,  however,  with  a 
bitter  hostility  to  foes.  Among  the  poems  that  they 
have  left  is  a  little  verse   which  says: 

Best  do  they  live 
Who  are  liberal  and  valiant 
And  to  trouble  them 
Rarely  comes  grief. 


A  Fiord  in  Norway 


121 


122      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

In  religion  the  Northmen  were  pagans  and  beUeved  in 
many  gods.  The  greatest  of  these  was  Odin,  the  father 
of  all.  Next  to  him  in  power  were  Freya,  the  goddess 
of  love  and  beauty;  Baldur,  the  fairest,  purest,  and  best 
beloved  of  the  gods ;  and  Thor,  the  mightiest  and  most 
dreaded.  It  was  Thor  whose  chariot  rolling  through  the 
heavens  caused  the  thunder,  and  who  struck  terror  into 
evildoers  with  his  magic  weapon,  a  mighty  hammer,  that 
returned  to  his  hand  after  it  had  struck  down  its  victim. 

About  these  gods  and  the  others  that  the  Northmen 
worshiped  were  woven  many  myths  and  stories,  and  to 
Odin's  palace,  Valhalla,  it  was  believed  that  all  Viking 
heroes  who  were  fortunate  enough  to  die  on  the  field  of 
battle  were  taken,  borne  thither  on  winged  horses  by  the 
heroic  warrior  maids,  called  Valkyrie. 

The  skald.  Skald  was  the  name  the  Northmen  gave  to 
their  poets  and  story-tellers.  As  we  have  said,  the  North- 
men loved  hospitality  and  delighted  above  all  things  to 
assemble  in  one  of  their  great  halls  for  a  banquet  with 
their  friends  and  kinsmen,  who  came  together  to  spend 
long  hours  in  feasting  and  song.  As  the  huge  gilded  horn 
of  mead  or  ale  was  passed  up  and  down  the  long  table, 
and  filled,  and  filled  again,  to  satisfy  the  revelers,  they 
would  call  on  some  skald  present  to  sing  them  a  song  or 
tell  over  some  saga.  A  feast  was  never  complete  unless  one 
of  them  was  present  to  entertain  the  guests.  Sometimes 
he  would  tell  a  saga  of  the  gods  —  of  how  Thor  fought 


THE  VIKINGS  123 

the  great  serpent  or  of  Odin's  battle  with  the  wolf ;  some- 
times he  would  thrill  the  feasters  with  the  wonderful  deeds 
of  their  dead  heroes  or  living  chiefs ;  and  again  it  would 
be  the  tale  of  a  Viking  voyage,  or  of  some  lately  fought 
battle  in  which,  it  might  be,  the  very  men  about  the 
table  had  taken  part. 

At  the  banquets  the  skalds  were  seated  next  the  host 
and  held  in  highest  honor.  One  of  the  sagas  tells  how  a 
skald  came  one  day  to  a  king's  palace  and  asked  if  he 
might  sing  to  the  king.  And  when  he  had  finished  his 
song,  ''  the  king  was  so  delighted  that  he  thanked  him 
for  it,  and  asked  his  treasurer  with  what  it  should  be  re- 
warded. The  treasurer  answered,  '  With  w^iat  would  you 
wish  to  reward  it,  lord  ? '  The  king  said,  '  How  will  it  be 
rewarded  if  I  give  him  two  ships  ? '  The  treasurer 
replied :  '  That  is  too  much,  lord.  Other  kings  give 
costly  gifts  like  good  swords  or  good  gold  rings  as  rewards 
for  a  song.'  So  the  king  gave  him  his  own  clothes  of 
new  scarlet,  a  lace-trimmed  kirtle,  a  cloak  with  the  finest 
fur  on  it,  and  a  gold  ring  that  weighed  a  mark.  And 
then  the  skald  thanked  him  and  stayed  a  short  while 
longer  and  then  went  on  his  way." 

Section  20.   Voyages  of  the  Vikings 

Ships  of  the  Northmen.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
the  king's  treasurer  protested  against  a  reward  of  two 
ships  in  return  for  a  song,  since  of  all  the  Northmen's 


124     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


possessions  the  most  precious  were  their  ships.  It  was 
the  aim  of  every  Viking  to  own  a  swift,  stout  ship,  well 
fitted  out  with  oars  and  sails,  for  it  was  only  by  means  of 
his  ship  that  he  could  make  his  voyages  over  sea  to 
foreign   lands   and    grow   rich  on   the  plunder  that    he 

brought  home.  Some  of 
the  kings  and  great  chiefs 
possessed  large  fleets.  One 
of  them  had  eight  hundred 
and  forty  ships,  and  the 
fleet  of  the  great  king 
Canute,  of  whom  we  shall 
hear  more  later  on,  num- 
bered twelve  hundred. 

A  splendid  sight  they 
must  have  been,  these  long 
ships  sweeping  over  the 
waves,  with  their  red  and 
white  or  blue  and  green 
striped  sails  and  their  gilded  dragons'  heads  glittering 
at  the  prows.  The  sails  were  often  beautifully  embroid- 
ered. Sometimes  they  were  lined  with  fur.  The  ship 
itself  was  painted  dark  blue,  or  red  and  gold,  or  what- 
ever color  best  pleased  its  owner.  And  he  gave  it  some 
poetic  name.  Some  of  their  names  were  Deer  of  the 
Surf  Lion  of  the  Waves ^  Sea  Kings  Deer^  and  Horse 
of  the  Home  of  Ice. 


A  Viking  Ship 


THE  VIKINGS  125 

The  sea  howls,  and  the  wave 

Dashes  the  bright  foam  against  the  ship's  wood, 

While  the  dragon  prow 

Yawns  with  its  gilded  mouth, 

is  a  verse  from  an  old  Norse  poem. 

It  was  in  these  ships  that  the  daring  Vikings  voyaged 
to  lands  that  must  have  seemed  very  far  away  from  home 
when  there  were  no  maps,  or  charts,  or  even  compasses 
to  direct  them  over  the  trackless  seas,  and  when  the  stars 
were  their  only  guides.  It  is  amazing  to  what  distances 
their  daring  and  their  love  of  adventure  and  booty  led 
them.  We  know  that  they  went  as  far  south  as  the  Med- 
iterranean Sea,  as  far  east  as  the  Black  Sea,  and  almost 
five  hundred  years  before  Columbus  was  born  they  made 
their  way  over  to  America. 

The  voyage  to  America.  This  voyage  came  about  as  fol- 
lows :  Toward  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century  some 
Northmen  became  dissatisfied  with  the  chiefs  of  their 
own  country  and  sailed  away,  with  their  families  and  pos- 
sessions, to  an  island  west  of  Norway,  now  called  Iceland. 
Here  they  made  a  flourishing  settlement  and  here  they 
first  began  to  write  down  the  sagas.  One  of  these  tells 
how  a  Northman  from  Iceland,  called  Eric  the  Red, 
settled  Greenland,  and  how  his  son,  Leif  the  Lucky,  sailed 
south  one  summer  from  Greenland  with  one  ship  and  a 
company  of  thirty-five  comrades ;  how  he  came  to  a 
warmer  land  than  he  ever  had  known  before;   and  how 


126      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


he  landed  and  encamped  there,  getting  furs  from  the 
natives.  This  country  he  called  Wineland,  because  one 
of  his  followers,  returning  from  an  expedition  farther  in- 
land, brought   back  some  wild  cranberries  from  which 

a  sort  of  wine  could 
be  made.  We  guess 
that  this  country  that 
Leif  the  Lucky  came 
to  was  what  is  now 
Labrador,  on  our  own 
American  continent, 
and  that  the  little  men 
he  tells  of  were  Eski- 
mos, but  we  cannot 
be  sure,  for  the  saga 
tells  little  more  about 
the  visits  of  the  North- 
men to  our  shores,  and 
they  did  not  establish 
any  permanent  settle- 
ments here. 

The  Vikings  in  England.  The  country  that  the  Vikings 
most  loved  to  make  raids  upon  and  to  plunder  was 
England.  In  the  last  chapter  we  saw  how  King  Alfred 
made  a  compact  with  them,  which  gave  them  a  part  of 
England  to  settle  in  on  condition  that  they  leave  the 
rest  of  it  undisturbed.    This  agreement  they  observed  for 


A  Norwegian  Waterfall 


THE  VIKINGS  127 

only  a  few  years,  for  no  Viking  thought  it  wrong  to  break 
his  pledge  to  an  enemy. 

The  plundering,  devastation,  and  fighting  went  on  for 
a  hundred  years  after  Alfred's  death.  Sometimes  the 
English  were  victorious,  but  more  often  the  Danes,  or 
Vikings,  were  the  conquerors,  until  at  last,  in  10 16,  the 
latter  succeeded  in  getting  the  mastery  in  England  under 
the  leadership  of  the  great  Danish  king,  Canute,  of  whose 
vast  fleet  of  ships  we  have  already  spoken. 

King  Canute.  Canute  was  like  all  the  other  Viking 
chiefs ;  if  he  wanted  a  thing  very  much,  he  stopped  at 
nothing  in  trying  to  get  it.  He  had  desired  exceedingly 
to  be  king  of  England,  but  in  attaining  his  desire  he 
committed  many  murderous  deeds.  The  English  nobles 
that  he  thought  might  make  trouble  for  him  he  had  put 
to  death,  or  else  sent  over  the  sea  to  countries  so  far 
away  that  they  could  not  interfere  with  his  plans.  When 
once  he  had  firmly  seated  himself  on  the  throne,  however, 
he  underwent  a  great  change,  and  from  having  been  a 
cruel  and  unfeeling  enemy  he  became  a  wise,  just,  and 
kind  ruler,  much  loved  by  his  English  as  well  as  by  his 
Danish  subjects. 

In  the  sagas  he  is  described  as  a  "very  tall  and  strong 
man,  and  very  handsome,  too,  except  that  his  nose  was 
too  thin  and  prominent,  and  somewhat  crooked  besides. 
His  complexion  was  fair,  and  his  hair  was  long  and  fair, 
while  his  eyes  were  finer  and  keener  than  any  other  man's 


128      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

of  his  day."  He  was  generous,  too,  and  a  great  and  vali- 
ant warrior,  as  well  as  very  lucky  in  all  his  undertakings, 
and  he  was  so  mild  that  his  chiefs  never  did  anything 
against  him  that  he  did  not  forgive  at  once,  if  they  came 
to  him  and  promised  to  be  obedient  to  him  once  more. 

He  proved  himself,  indeed,  in  every  way  a  good  ruler 
during  the  nineteen  years  that  he  lived  to  reign  over 
England.  Under  his  rule  peace  was  established  and  law 
and  order  restored.  He  adopted  Christianity  and  even 
made  a  pious  pilgrimage  to  Rome. 

King  Canute's  only  desire,  once  he  had  made  himself 
ruler  of  England,  seems  to  have  been  to  add  to  the  hap- 
piness and  prosperity  of  his  subjects  and  to  win  their  love, 
and  in  this  he  was  so  successful  that  the  grief  at  his 
death  was  universal. 

Questions,  l.  What  did  the  French  and  English  think  of  the  North- 
men ?  2.  How  do  we  learn  about  them  ?  3.  How  is  it  that  many  Ameri- 
cans are  probably  descended  from  the  Vikings  ?  4.  Where  is  Iceland  ? 
5.  What  things  were  admirable  in  the  character  of  the  Vikings  ? 

References,  Cheyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  83-86 
(Danish  attacks  on  England)  ;  pp.  87-89  (Canute^s  letter).  Old  South 
Leaflets,  Vol.  II,  No.  31  (voyage  of  the  Vikings  to  Vinland).  H.  W. 
Mabie.  Norse  Stories.  Hall.  Viking  Tales.  Bates  and  Coman. 
English  History  Told  by  English  Poets,  p.  19  (Canute  the  Dane) ;  p.  21 
(King  Canute), 


CHAPTER  IX 

WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR 

William  of  Normandy,  a  descendant  of  the  Vikings.  His  claim  to  the  throne 
of  England.  His  invasion  of  England  and  the  battle  of  Hastings.  How  he 
made  himself  master  of  all  England.  His  castles.  The  Doomsday  Book.  The 
New  Forest.  Building  of  churches  throughout  England.  Character  of  William 
the  Conqueror.  How  England  benefited  by  the  coming  of  the  Normans.  The 
system  of  holding  land,  called  feudalism 

Section  21.    William  of  Normandy  and  Harold 
OF  England 

The  Northmen  in  France.  A  hundred  years  before  Canute 
became  king  of  England,  another  Viking  leader,  named 
Rolf  (or  Rollo),  had  settled  down  with  his  followers  in 
the  northwestern  part  of  France.  This  region  has  ever 
since  been  called  after  them,  Normandy  —  the  land  of  the 
Northmen  or  Normans.  In  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century,  then,  which  w^e  have  now  reached  in  our  story, 
we  find  Northmen  settled  on  both  sides  of  the  English 
Channel.  We  shall  see  next  how  a  descendant  of  Rolf, 
William  of  Normandy,  united  under  his  rule  the  Nor- 
mans of  France  and  the  Danish  Northmen  of  England. 

William  of  Normandy  was  a  true  son  of  the  Vikings, 
a  man  of  gigantic  stature  and  mighty  frame,  with  eyes 

so  fierce  and  countenance  so  stern  that  he  struck  terror 

129 


130     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

to  all  who  had  to  do  with  him.  Even  in  his  childish 
days  he  displayed  remarkable  daring  and  energy,  for  he 
became  Duke  of  Normandy  at  seven,  and  when  he  was 
only  thirteen  he  led  his  men  in  a  successful  attack  on  a 
rebellious  noble's  castle. 

As  he  grew  older  and  assumed  entire  control  of  the 
dukedom  that  he  had  inherited,  he  proved  a  powerful  and 
tireless  ruler.  One  by  one  he  subdued  all  the  neighbor- 
ing lords  who  disputed  his  rights,  until  finally  he  was 
almost  as  powerful  as  the  king  of  France  himself.  But 
even  this  was  not  enough  to  satisfy  his  ambition.  So  he 
turned  his  eyes  across  the  Channel  to  England. 

Edward  the  Confessor  and  Harold.  England  was  then 
ruled  by  an  English  king,  Edward  the  Confessor,  a  de- 
scendant of  Alfred  the  Great.  He  had  long  been  on  the 
throne,  and  his  reign  was  now  drawing  to  a  close.  As  he  had 
no  children  the  question  was  who  should  be  his  successor. 

There  were  tw^o  ways  of  settling  this  question.  In  Eng- 
land there  was  a  great  earl,  Harold,  who  was  the  king's 
chief  adviser,  and  it  seemed  likely  that  Edward  would 
choose  him  as  his  successor  to  the  throne. 

Over  in  France,  however,  there  was  William  of  Nor- 
mandy, who  claimed  to  be  the  rightful  successor  to  the 
throne  on  several  grounds.  In  the  first  place  he  declared 
that  Edward  had  once  promised  him  that  he  should  be 
the  next  king.  He  also  claimed  that  once  when  Earl 
Harold  had  been  shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of  Normandy 


WILLIAM   THE  CONQUEROR  131 

and  so  had  come  into  his  power,  he  had  sworn  a  solemn 
oath  to  aid  William  to  secure  the  English  throne  when 
the  time  came.  Both  these  things  had  made  the  Nor- 
man duke  count  upon  becoming  king  of  England  upon 
Edward's  death. 

This  was  the  way  matters  stood  when,  in  1066,  Edward 
the  Confessor's  life  approached  its  end.  Harold  was  close 
at  hand,  and  the  dying  king,  who*had  doubtless  forgotten 
his  promise  to  William,  if  indeed  he  had  ever  made  it, 
recommended  to  his  assembled  lords  that  they  choose 
Harold  for  their  ruler.  He  was  therefore  crowned  im- 
mediately after  the  king's  death,  and  lost  no  time  in 
assuming  control  of  English  affairs. 

William's  invasion  and  conquest  of  England.  When  the 
news  of  the  coronation  reached  William  he  fell  into  so 
violent  a  rage  over  what  he  considered  an  act  of  treachery 
on  the  part  of  Harold,  that,  as  the  chronicler  wrote,  "  to 
no  man  spake  he,  and  none  dared  speak  to  him."  He 
began  straightway  to  collect  an  army  and  a  fleet  with 
which  to  invade  England  and  enforce  his  claim  to  the 
English  throne,  assembling  his  archers  and  his  armed 
knights  and  making  preparations  for  building  the  ships 
in  which  to  transport  his  forces  across  the  Channel. 

All  these  preparations  occupied  so  many  months  that 
Harold,  who  had  heard  of  his  coming  and  had  for  a  long 
while  maintained  an  army  on  the  southern  coast  to  await 
his  attack,  was  at  last  obliged  to  let  most  of  his  soldiers 


go  home  to  work  on  their  farms.  So  it  happened  that 
when  WiUiam  at  last  arrived  off  the  coast  of  England 
one  September  morning  in  the  year  1066,  there  was  no 
one  to  oppose  him.  He  landed  his  army  at  Pevensey 
and  at  once  began  ravaging  all  the  country  round  about. 
By  the  time  Harold  had  gathered  his  forces  again  and 
was  able  to  meet  the  duke  in  battle,  the  Normans  had 
gone  as  far  inland  as  the  town  of  Hastings  and  had  been 
laying  waste  the  land  for  more  than  two  weeks. 

On  a  low  hill  not  far  from  Hastings  William  and 
Harold,  with  their  armies,  at  last  came  together.  Long 
and  fierce  was  the  battle  that  was  waged.  From  sunrise 
to  sunset  shields  and  armor  resounded  with  the  shock 
of  lances  and  flying  arrows.  Sometimes  the  Norman 
knights  were  victorious,  sometimes  the  battle-axes  of  the 
English  soldiers  drove  them  back  from  the  hill  on  which 
Harold  had  taken  his  stand.  But  at  last,  toward  the  end 
of  the  day,  when  William,  unhorsed  and  unhelmeted,  was 
urging  on  his  soldiers  to  a  final  attack  on  the  sturdy 
English,  a  shaft  from  a  storm  of  arrows  pierced  Harold 
through  the  eye  and  he  fell  dead  before  the  advancing 
hosts  of  the  Normans.  His  men  retreated  in  dismay  at 
the  loss  of  their  leader,  and  William  and  his  invading 
army  were  left  masters  of  the  field. 

Although  William  was  victorious  in  the  battle  of 
Hastings,  he  was  not  yet  master  of  all  England.  It 
was   necessary   that   he   should   be   formally   elected    by 


William  the  Conqueror  granting  the  Town  Charter  to  the 

Citizens  of  London 

(From  the  painting  by  Lucas) 


134     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  English  assembly  of  nobles  and  bishops,  called  the 
Witenagemot,  before  he  could  rightfully  assume  the  crown. 

William  never  wasted  a  moment  in  setting  about 
doing  whatever  seemed  necessary  to  insure  success.  Im- 
mediately after  his  victory,  therefore,  he  started  to  march 
on  London,  terrifying  the  towns  on  the  way  into  sub- 
mission; and  one  of  them  he  set  on  fire  to  teach  the 
English  that  he  intended  his  conquest  to  be  complete. 
By  the  time  he  reached  London  the  Witenagemot  was  so 
thoroughly  convinced  of  the  impossibility  of  withstanding 
him  that  they  met  him  outside  the  city,  offered  him  the 
crown,  and  invited  him  to  enter  the  town  for  his  coro- 
nation. So  he  was  legally  crowned  king  of  England  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  on  Christmas  Day,  in  the  year  1066. 

In  the  city  hall  of  Bayeux,  a  very  old  town  in  Nor- 
mandy, is  a  famous  piece  of  tapestry,  called  the  Bayeux 
tapestry.  It  is  a  strip  of  coarse  linen  about  half  a  yard 
wide  and  some  seventy  yards  long.  On  it  are  embroid- 
ered in  woolen  thread  of  different  colors  —  blue,  yellow, 
red,  and  green  —  seventy-two  scenes,  picturing  events 
in  the  Norman  Conquest.  Tradition  says  that  Queen 
Matilda,  the  wife  of  William  the  Conqueror,  assisted  by 
the  ladies  of  her  court,  designed  and  worked  these 
pictures.  Whether  or  not  this  is  true,  it  is  certain  that 
the  tapestry  was  made  shortly  after  the  time  that  the 
scenes  it  portrays  were  enacted  on  English  and  Norman 
soil.     It  shows  us   Harold  taking  his  oath  to  William, 


WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR  135 

Edward  the  Confessor  bestowing  the  crown  on  Harold, 
the  embarking  of  WilHam's  army  for  England,  and  many 
scenes  from  the  battle  of  Hastings,  depicting  the  Norman 
horsemen  with  their  coats  of  mail,  the  English  with  their 
shields  and  battle-axes,  a  group  of  archers  fighting  on 
foot,  and  finally  Harold  attempting  to  pull  at  the  arrow 
that  shot  him  through  the  eye. 


Section  22.    Govf:rnment  of  William  the  Conqueror 

Division  of  land.  After  his  conquest  the  next  thing  for 
William  to  do  was  to  make  it  impossible  for  his  subjects 
to  defy  him.  In  order  to  accomplish  this  he  made  a 
number  of  changes  in  customs  and  government. 

In  the  first  place  he  took  over  the  lands  and  estates  of 
Englishmen  and  gave  them  to  his  Norman  friends  and 
followers.  There  was  no  nobleman,  no  common  soldier  in 
his  whole  army,  no  attendant  at  court,  however  humble 
his  duties,  who  clid  not  receive  some  reward  of  this  sort. 
By  means  of  this  division  of  property  he  brought  it 
about  that  in  every  part  of  England  there  were  Norman 
landowners  who  were  constantly  on  guard  against  any 
uprising  of  the  English  against  William,  for  they  knew 
well  that  if  the  Conqueror  lost  his  throne,  they  too 
would  lose  their  possessions. 

When  these  landowners  received  their  estates  from 
the  king  they  took  an  oath  of  eternal  loyalty  to  him, 


136      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

pledging  themselves  to  take  up  arms  for  him  at  his 
call.  And,  in  turn,  every  tenant  of  these  landowners 
had  to  make  the  same  oath  both  to  the  king  himself 
and  to  his  own  landlord  as  well.  In  this  way  William 
made  the  whole  people  into  an  army  that  he  could 
summon  around  his   standard  whenever  he   desired. 


A  Norman  Church  in  Iffley,  England 


Norman  castles.  In  the  second  place,  as  another  pre- 
caution against  a  revolt  of  the  English,  William  kept  all 
the  important  towns  in  England  in  subjection  to  him 
by  building  castles  in  them  which  he  garrisoned  with 
Norman  soldiers  under  the  command  of  a  Norman  earl. 
Some  of  these  old  stone  castles,  or  parts  of  them,  are 
still  standing.    The  strongest  part  of  the  castle  was  the 


SfLongitude  West  0" Longitude  East  2'from  Greeawioh  4° 


Dominions  of  William  the  Conqueror 

137 


138      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

thick-walled  tower,  called  the  keep.  The  lord's  family 
lived  in  this  part,  in  rooms  that  we  should  think  damp 
and  gloomy  enough  to-day,  with  cold  stone  floors,  and 
windows  that  were  mere  slits  in  the  walls.  Tapestry 
curtains  served  to  keep  off  some  of  the  chill,  however, 
and  a  huge  fireplace  in  the  hall  made  at  least  one  warm 
spot.  Below  the  main  floor  were  dungeons  where  the 
earl  could  safely  put  away  any  one  whom  he  feared  or 
disliked.  Around  the  tower  was  a  courtyard,  inclosed 
by  a  thick  wall,  on  which  soldiers  kept  constant  watch. 
The  castle  was  further  protected  by  a  moat,  with  a 
drawbridge  across  it  closed  by  a  portcullis,  which  was  a 
heavy  wooden  grating  that  could  be  raised  and  lowered 
more  quickly  than  the  drawbridge  itself.  A  portion  of 
the  great  Tower  of  London  belonged  to  one  of  these 
old  castles. 

The  Doomsday  Book.  William  had  a  way  of  keeping  an 
eye  on  the  possessions  of  his  subjects  and  of  determining 
how  much  he  could  tax  them,  which  found  but  little 
favor  with  the  people.  This  was  the  Doomsday  Book. 
The  "  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,"  which  we  have  already 
spoken  of,  says:  ''The  king  sent  his  men  over  all  Eng- 
land, into  every  shire,  and  caused  them  to  ascertain  how 
many  hides  of  land  ^  it  contained,  and  what  lands  the 
king  possessed  therein,  what  cattle  there  were  in  the 
several  counties,  and  how  much   revenue  he  ought  to 

1  A  "  bide  "  of  land  was  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres. 


WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR 


139 


receive  yearly  from  each.  He  also  caused  them  to  write 
down  how  much  land  belonged  to  the  archbishops,  the 
bishops,  the  abbots,  and  the  earls,  and  what  property 
every  inhabitant  of  all  England  possessed  in  land  or  in 
cattle,  and  how  much  money  this  was  worth.  So  very 
carefully  did  he  cause  the 
survey  to  be  made,  that  there 
was  not  a  single  hide  nor 
a  rood  of  land,  nor  —  it  is 
shameful  to  relate  that  which 
he  thought  no  shame  to  do 
—  was  there  an  ox  or  a  pig 
passed  by  that  was  not  set 
down  in  the  accounts,  and 
then  all  these  writings  were 
brought  to  him."  The  re- 
ports brought  in  made  two 
thick  volumes  of  manuscript, 
called  the  Doomsday  Book. 
The  so-called  Doomsday  Book  meant  a  book  of  decisions 
that  no  man  might  question,  from  "  Doomsday  "  (the  Day 
of  Judgment).  The  volumes  are  still  in  existence  in 
the  form  in  which  they  were  written  out  by  King 
William's    clerks. 

Other  changes  made  by  William.  As  has  just  been  said, 
the  Doomsday  Book  was  one  of  the  measures  that  served 
to  make  William  an  unpopular  sovereign.    Another  was 


The  Doomsday  Book 


I40     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  introduction  into  England  of  the  Norman  custom  of 
the  curfew.  This  was  a  regulation  requiring  every  one 
to  put  out  or  cover  his  fire  at  dusk.  The  time  was  an- 
nounced each  evening  by  the  ringing  of  the  curfew  bell. 
It  was  intended  to  prevent  accident  from  fires,  but  the 
English  looked  upon  it  as  another  piece  of  tyranny  on 
the  part  of  the  king. 

Still  another  act  of  the  Conqueror  roused  the  hatred  of 
his  subjects.    The  king  was  very  fond  of  hunting,  and  in 


Scenes  from  the  Bayeux  Tapestry 

order  to  be  able  always  to  find  plenty  of  deer  and 
other  wild  animals  for  his  sport  he  had  all  the  villages  and 
hamlets  in  a  great  tract  of  sixty  thousand  acres  destroyed 
and  the  region  given  over  to  hunting.  The  old  chron- 
icler says,  "He  made  a  large  forest  for  the  deer  and  en- 
acted laws  that  whoever  killed  a  hare  or  a  hind  therein 
should  be  blinded.  As  he  forbade  killing  a  deer,  so  also 
the  boars,  and  he  loved  the  tall  stags  as  if  he  were  their 
father."  The  hunting  ground  thus  made  was  called  the 
New  Forest.^     The  people  always  felt  that  evil  would 

^  Portions  of  the  New  Forest  are  still  standing,  covering  a  great  stretch  of 
land,  over  one  hundred  square  miles,  in  the  south  of  England. 


WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR  141 

come  to  the  king  for  his  wickedness  in  using  the  land  in 
this  way,  and  for  his  cruel  punishment  of  those  who  dared 
to  hunt  in  the  woods. 

The  Great  CounciL  In  spite  of  the  new  customs  and 
laws  that  William  introduced,  he  retained  all  the  old  cus- 
toms of  government  that  he  thought  he  could  with  safety. 
For  example,  three  times  a  year  regularly  —  at  Easter, 
Whitsuntide,  and  Christmas  —  he  assembled  the  old 
council  of  nobles  and  churchmen,  the  Witenagemot,  now 
called  the  Great  Council,  and  always  appeared  before  it 
with  his  crown  on  his  head,  making  it  an  occasion  of 
much  ceremony  and  display.  This  council  was  the  fore- 
runner of  the  modern  English  parliament. 

Character  of  William.  William  the  Conqueror,  with  all 
his  tyranny,  greed,  and  cruelty,  had  many  good  and  great 
qualities.  The  writer  of  the  "  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle," 
after  the  king's  death,  said  of  him :  "  King  William  was 
a  very  wise  and  a  great  man,  and  more  honored  and 
more  powerful  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  He  was 
mild  to  those  good  men  who  loved  God,  but  severe  be- 
yond measure  to  those  who  withstood  his  will.  In  his 
days  the  great  monastery  at  Canterbury  was  built,  and 
many  others  also  throughout  England. 

''  Amongst  other  things,  the  good  order  that  William 
established  is  not  to  be  forgotten.  It  was  such  that  any 
man  might  travel  over  the  kingdom  with  a  bosom  full  of 
gold,  unmolested  ;  and  no  man  durst  kill  another,  however 


142      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

great  the  injury  he  might  have  received  from  him.  But 
truly  there  was  much  trouble  in  these  times,  and  very 
great  distress ;  King  William  caused  castles  to  be  built 
and  oppressed  the  poor.  He  was  also  of  great  sternness, 
and  he  took  from  his  subjects  many  marks  of  gold  and 
many  hundred  pounds  of  silver,  and  this,  either  with  or 
without  right  and  with  little  need.  The  rich  complained 
and  the  poor  murmured,  but  they  must  will  all  that  the 
king  willed  if  they  would  live,  or  would  keep  their  lands, 
or  w^ould  hold  their  possessions,  or  would  be  maintained 
in  their  rights.  Alas !  that  any  man  should  so  exalt  him- 
self and  carry  himself  in  his  pride  over  all !  " 

In  1087,  while  he  was  carrying  on  a  war  in  France, 
this  great  king  and  conqueror  received  such  an  injury  in 
an  accident  on  horseback  that  he  died  before  he  could 
return  to  England,  and  was  buried  in  an  abbey  that  he 
himself  had  founded  at  Caen  in  Normandy. 

He  had  reigned  twenty-one  years,  and  during  that  time 
had  done  immense  service  by  bringing  the  different  ele- 
ments of  the  country  —  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  Danes, 
and  the  Normans  —  under  one  strong  central  govern- 
ment. The  barons,  who  were  ever  ready  to  oppress  their 
tenants  and  defy  the  king,  were  kept  in  check,  and 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  his  reign  peace,  law,  and 
order  were  maintained  by  his  strong  hand.  Even  his 
enemies  declared  that  "  in  war  no  knight  under  heaven 
was  his  peer." 


WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR 


143 


Advantages  of  the  Norman  Conquest.  In  the  years 
following  the  death  of  William,  the  descendants  of 
those  Normans  who  had  come  over  with  him  from 
France  became  fully  established    on   English  soil   and 


Norman  Stair,  Canterbury 

made  their  influence  felt  in  every  direction.  This  was 
to  the  great  advantage  of  England,  for  the  Normans 
were  a  quick-witted,  clever,  energetic  people,  better 
trained,  less  self-indulgent,  and  more  enterprising  than 
the  English,  who  were  stirred  up  and  enlivened  by  the 
newcomers. 


144     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

French,  the  language  of  the  Normans,  became  the 
language  used  by  the  ruling  class  —  the  nobles,  bishops, 
and  government  officials  —  as  well  as  by  the  Norman 
townsmen.  The  use  of  English  was  confined  altogether 
to  the  poorer  classes,  and  was  regarded  as  a  stupid,  vul- 
gar kind  of  speech.  Church  services  continued  to  be 
conducted  in  Latin,  and  most  of  the  few  books  written 
were  in  that  language. 

Before  the  Conquest  there  had  already  begun  in  France 
a  revival  of  the  art  of  building,  and  the  Normans,  who 
loved  to  build  and  were  very  clever  at  it,  brought  this 
enthusiasm  into  England,  to  the  great  improvement  of 
English  architecture.  7^he  rounded  arches  in  the  illus- 
tration are  in  the  style  called  Norman.  Splendid  abbeys 
and  churches  were  erected.  Some  of  England's  most 
beautiful  cathedrals  arose  at  this  time,  while  the  be- 
ginnings of  many  more  were  made.  Towns  too  grew 
in  importance  after  the  advent  of  the  Normans,  who 
introduced  new  trades  and  better  methods  of  doing 
business. 

On  the  whole,  the  Norman  Conquest  was  the  best 
thing  that  could  have  happened  to  the  English  people, 
though  they  were  very  far  from  thinking  so  at  the  time 
that  it  occurred. 


WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR  145 

Section  23.    Feudalism 

The  king  and  his  vassals.  In  those  times  of  the  Middle 
Ages  a  king  was  counted  the  real  owner  of  all  the  land 
over  which  he  ruled.  When  he  granted  estates  or  large 
tracts  of  land  to  his  favorites,  or  to  desemng  soldiers,  or 
to  bishops  or  abbots,  as  William  the  Conqueror  so  often 
did,  he  was  not  thought  of  as  actually  giving  it  to  them. 
It  was  simply  handed  over  to  them  and  their  heirs  for  as 
long  as  they  were  true  to  an  oath  of  allegiance  w^hich  they 
had  to  make  to  the  king  upon  receiving  the  land.  Kneel- 
ing before  him,  bareheaded  and  unarmed,  they  had  to 
place  their  hands  between  his  and  swear,  "  I  become 
liege  man  of  yours  for  life  and  limb  and  death,  God  help 
me."  xAfter  this  oath  the  king,  with  a.  kiss,  conferred  the 
land.  The  ceremony  was  called  "  doing  liomage  "  ;  the 
one  who  received  the  land  became  the  "  man  "  or  "  vassal " 
of  the  lord  who  granted  it,  and  the  land  itself  was  called 
his  "  fief."  If  a  man  broke  his  oath  he  was  supposed  to 
forfeit  his  land.^ 

Very  often  these  grants  of  land  were  so  vast  that  there 
were  many  tenants  and  subtenants  under  the  tenant  in 
chief;  that  is,  the  lord  or  bishop  to  whom  the  king  had 
first  given  the  fief.  Each  one  of  these  tenants  and  sub- 
tenants, upon  receiving  land  from  the  lord  of  the  estate, 

1  This  system  of  holding  land  was  called  ''  feudalism."  This  word  is  not  derived 
from  "  feud,"  meaning  "  hostility,"  but  from  "  feud,"  meaning  "  fief." 


146     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


Vassal  doing  Homage  to  his  Lord 

had  to  do  him  homage  and  become  his  vassal  and  swear 
to  him  an  oath  of  allegiance,  just  as  the  lord  himself  had 
done  when  he  received  the  land  from  the  king.  All  those 
tenants  who  could  perform  military  service  on  horseback 
were  called  knights.  The  others  came  on  foot,  armed 
with  a  lance  or  spear. 


WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR  147 

Warfare  in  feudal  times.  There  was  constant  fighting 
going  on  between  vassals  and  lords,  for  if  a  vassal  began 
to  feel  himself  strong  enough  to  defeat  his  lord  in  war, 
he  seldom  hesitated  to  break  his  oath  of  homage  and 
take  up  arms  against  his  lord,  using  his  own  vassals  to 
help  him.  Often,  too,  he  changed  his  allegiance  from 
one  lord  to  another.  The  five  centuries  or  so  during 
which  land  was  held  under  the  feudal  system  —  instead 
of  being  bought  and  sold  or  rented  for  money,  as  it  is 
nowadays  —  were  troubled  times.  The  men  who  were 
strongest  got  what  they  wanted,  and  the  weaker  were 
trampled    underfoot. 

The  only  place  where  men  and  w^omen  could  be  rea- 
sonably sure  of  peace  and  safety  was  within  the  walls  of 
monasteries  and  convents,  since  whatever  had  to  do  with 
the  Church  was  considered  sacred  even  by  the  fiercest 
warrior,  except  in  times  of  extraordinary  disorder  and 
lawlessness. 

Questions,  l.  How  many  different  peoples  occupied  England  from 
the  time  of  Julius  Caesar  to  that  of  William  the  Conqueror  ?  2.  Has  any 
ruler  to-day  as  much  power  as  William  the  Conqueror  had  ? 

References.  Cheyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  90-101 
(three  accounts  of  the  Norman  Conquest);  pp.  102-106  (immediate  re- 
sults of  the  Conquest)  ;  pp.  132-136  (concerning  feudal  customs).  Rob- 
inson. Readings  in  European  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  224-229  (battle  of 
Hastings;  English  and  Normans);  pp.  229-231  (rule  of  William  the 
Conqueror);  pp.  175-187  (feudalism).  Bates  and  Coman.  English 
History  Told  by  English  Poets,  p,  26  (Harold). 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  CRUSADES  AND  RICHARD  THE  LION-HEARTED 

How  Pope   Urban   II  roused  the  people  of  Europe  to  go  on  a  crusade  to 

the  Holy  Land.    The  First  Crusade.    The  Third  Crusade  and  Richard  I  of 

England.    Return  of  Richard.    Results  of  the  Crusades.    Knighthood 

Section  24.    The  First  Crusade  and  the  Capture 
OF  Jerusalem  by  the  Christians 

The  Holy  Land.  Among  the  events  of  the  Middle  Ages 
there  is  none  more  romantic  than  the  Crusades  to  the 
Holy  Land.  From  the  earliest  times  it  was  counted  an 
act  of  piety  for  Christians  to  visit  the  sepulcher  of  their 
Saviour,  in  Jerusalem.  They  called  Palestine  the  "  Holy 
Land  "  because  Jesus  had  lived  and  preached  there.  The 
city  of  Jerusalem  and  the  country  of  Palestine  had  in  time 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  followers  of  the  great  Arab 
prophet,  Mohammed.  The  Mohammedans  continued  for 
a  long  w^hile,  how^ever,  to  allow  the  Christian  pilgrims^  to 
make  their  visits  of  devotion  to  the  Holy  Land  unmolested. 
But  when  Palestine  was  conquered  by  a  fierce  tribe  of 
Turks,  the  pilgrims  were  treated  with  such  cruelty  that 
the  whole  Christian  world  was  thrilled  with  horror  by  it. 

^  Great  numbers  of  these  pilgrims  used  to  journey  to  the  shrines  of  famous 
saints.  They  wore  long  cloaks  and  carried  staffs  and  sacks  for  their  bread. 
They  often  begged  their  way.  One  of  the  most  frequented  shrines  was  the  tomb 
of  St.  Peter  at  Rome,  and  the  greatest  pilgrimage  was  the  one  to  Jerusalem. 

148 


THE  CRUSADES 


149 


Pope  Urban  II  starts  the  First  Crusade.  In  1095  a  gieat 
meeting  was  held  at  Clermont,  in  France,  to  protest 
against  these  outrages.  At  this  meeting  Pope  Urban  II 
made  an  eloquent  address,  describing  the  sufferings  and 
tortures  of  the  Christians  and  the  dangers  that  would 


Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  in  Jerusaleim 

threaten  the  Holy  Sepulcher  itself  if  such  things  were 
allowed  to  continue.  He  begged  all  his  hearers  to  forget 
their  little  personal  quarrels  and  their  continual  strife 
with  one  another,  and  to  unite  in  one  great  effort  to  save 
the  Holy  City.  "  Set  forth  on  this  expedition  with  eager- 
ness," he  cried,  "  that  your  sins  may  be  forgiven  you,  and 
that  ye  may  be  assured  of  the  reward  of  imperishable 
glory  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 


I50      INTRODUCTION   TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Carried  away  by  his  eloquence  the  vast  multitude  of 
his  hearers  cried  aloud,  with  one  great  shout,  "It  is  the 
will  of  God !  It  is  the  will  of  God !  "  These  words  the 
good  Urban  then  declared  should  be  the  battle  cry  of 
those  who  set  out  on  the  enterprise.  For  a  badge  he 
bade  them  wear  a  cross,  which  should  be  placed  on  the 
breast  as  they  journeyed  toward  the  Holy  Land,  but,  as 
they  returned,  should  be  worn  on  the  back.  From  this 
badge  of  a  cross  the  expeditions  came  to  be  called 
Crusades,  and  those  who  engaged  in  them,  Crusaders. 

Peter  the  Hermit.  After  Pope  Urban's  speech  at  Cler- 
mont many  went  about  stirring  up  people  to  join  in  the 
Crusades.  Chief  among  them  was  a  certain  Frenchman 
called  Peter  the  Hermit,  who  roused  the  utmost  enthu- 
siasm on  the  part  of  his  hearers,  notwithstanding  his  in- 
significant size  and  humble  aspect.  Clad  in  the  coarse 
garments  of  a  monk,  he  rode  up  and  down  the  country 
on  his  mule,  crucifix  in  hand,  exhorting  all  to  take  up 
the  cause. 

By  the  following  .spring  an  enormous  company  had 
gathered  together,  ready  to  set  out  for  the  deliverance  of 
the  Holy  City.  It  is  said  there  were  in  all  as  many 
as  200,000  persons  —  throngs  of  poor  workingmen  with 
their  wives  and  children,  as  well  as  a  vast  crowd  of  vaga- 
bonds and  adventurers.  Some  of  the  multitude  were 
going  on  account  of  their  religious  zeal,  but  many  more 
for  the  sake  of  adventure,  or  to  escape  punishment  for 


THE  CRUSADES  15  I 

their  crimes,  or  to  make  homes  in  a  land  that  they  had 
been  told  was  ''  flowing  with  milk  and  honey." 

This  first  great  host  of  Crusaders  started  out  in  several 
divisions  to  travel  the  two  thousand  miles  to  Palestine. 
One  of  the  companies  w^as  under  the  leadership  of  Peter 
the  Hermit.  The  difficulties  they  encountered  in  cross- 
ing the  mountains,  plains,  and  rivers  on  their  journey 
were  tremendous.  Thousands  died  on  the  way  from 
hunger,  disease,  and  exposure.  Many  thousands  more 
were  slaughtered  by  the  Hungarians  and  Turks  through 
whose  country  they  went,  and  whose  property  suffered 
greatly  from  the  lawless  crowd.  It  was  only  a  pitiful 
remnant  of  the  original  company  that  returned  from  the 
expedition,  and  even  these  few  had  not  succeeded  in 
reaching  the  Holy  Land. 

The  Crusaders  and  Constantinople.  The  next  year  a 
second  division  of  the  Plrst  Crusade,  very  different  from 
the  other,  set  out.  It  was  a  host  of  six  armies  made  up 
of  knights  and  yeomen,^  each  under  the  leadership  of  a 
distinguished  noble.  The  most  famous  of  the  leaders  was 
the  valiant  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  and  another  was  Duke 
Robert  of  Normandy,  son  of  William  the  Conqueror. 
With  gleaming  shields  and  lances,  and  flying  banners  on 
which  shone  out  their  motto  Deus  vult  ("  It  is  the  will 
of  God  "),  the  six  armies  set  forth,  one  after  the  other, 
for  the   Holy  Land,  having  arranged  to  meet  again  in 

1  Yeomen  were  free  men  who  tilled  their  own  farms. 


1S2      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


Constantinople,  the  capital  of  what  was  the  eastern  part 
left  of  the  old  Roman  Empire. 

On  their  arrival  in  that  city  they  caused  much  dismay 
to  the  Eastern  emperor,  who  had  hard  work  to  keep  their 
disorderly  bands  from  ill-treating  his  subjects  and  laying 
waste  his  lands.  However,  notwithstanding  their  rude 
and  ungrateful  behavior,  he  took  pains  to  offer  to  the 
leaders  of    the    host    the   utmost    hospitality  which    his 

beautiful  capital  could 
afford. 

The  wonders  of  Con- 
stantinople excited  the 
greatest  admiration  on 
the  part  of  the  Cru- 
saders. The  spacious 
avenues  and  squares 
of  the  city,  set  with 
beautiful  buildings  and  monuments,  made  a  striking 
contrast  to  the  narrow  streets  and  dark  houses  of  their 
own  towns,  crowded  together  within  encircling  walls  and 
topped  by  the  frowning  towers  of  gray  fortresses.  "  Oh 
how  great  a  city  is  Constantinople,  "  one  of  the  Crusaders 
wrote  home ;  "  and  how  noble  and  comely !  What  won- 
drously  built  monasteries  and  palaces  are  therein !  What 
marvels  everywhere  in  street  and  square !  " 

The  Crusaders  and  Jerusalem.  After  a  stay  of  some 
months  the  great  armies  of  the  "  Eranks,"  as  the  Eastern 


Tomb  of  a  Crusader 


THE  CRUSADES  153 

emperor  and  his  people  called  the  Crusaders,  moved  on 
across  the  Bosporus  and  through  Asia  Minor  toward 
Palestine.  This  march  was  full  of  appalling  hardships. 
They  suffered  fearfully  from  famine  and  pestilence,  as 
well  as  from  the  attacks  of  the  Mohammedan  Turks. 
Their  ranks  became  so  thinned  in  all  these  ways,  as  well 
as  by  the  desertion  of  those  whose  courage  gave  out,  that 
by  the  time  they  reached  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  in  1099, 
two  years  after  they  had  set  out  from  France,  there  were 
but  20,000  men  left  out  of  the  150,000  that  had  originally 
made  up  the  army. 

The  taking  of  Jerusalem  was  no  easy  matter,  even 
after  they  had  reached  it,  for  the  walls  were  strong  and 
high,  and  there  was  at  first  little  food  to  support  the 
knights  during  the  siege.  Relief  came,  however,  in  sup- 
plies brought  by  sea  from  Genoa  in  Italian  merchant 
ships,  and  at  last,  after  a  siege  of  many  weeks,  the  Holy 
City  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Crusaders. 

Their  first  act  after  the  capture  was  to  massacre,  with 
outrageous  barbarity,  all  the  Turks  —  men,  women,  and 
children  alike  —  that  they  found  in  the  city.  Then  a 
Christian  kingdom  was  established  there  and  Godfrey  of 
Bouillon  chosen  as  ruler  of  it.  Other  nobles  and  knights 
laid  claim  to  estates  in  the  country  round  about,  and 
for  fifty  years  the  Prankish  kingdom  in  Palestine  grew 
and  flourished,  holding  its  own  against  the  power  of 
the  Turks. 


154      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Section  25.   The  Third  Crusade  and  Richard  I 
OF  England 

Richard  the  Lion-Hearted.  The  First  Crusade,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  resulted  in  the  capture  of  the  Holy  City 
and  the  establishment  of  a  small  Christian  kingdom 
about  it.  A  second  Crusade  was  undertaken  almost  fifty 
years  later,  to  recapture  Edessa  from  the  Saracens,  as  the 
Mohammedans  were  called,  but  this  was  a  failure.  Forty 
years  later  the  great  Saracen  leader  Saladin,  as  brave 
and  heroic  a  warrior  as  any  among  his  enemies  the  Cru- 
saders, recaptured  the  city  of  Jerusalem  from  the  Chris- 
tians, and  a  third  Crusade  set  forth  from  France  to  win 
it  back.  In  this  Crusade,  the  most  famous  one  of  all,  we 
take  a  special  interest,  for  one  of  its  leaders  was  the 
valiant  and  distinguished  King  Richard  of  England,  a 
descendant  of  William  the  Conqueror,  so  brave  and 
daring  that  he  was  called   Richard  the  Lion-Hearted. 

Richard  was  in  France  engaged  in  preparing  for  this 
Crusade  when  his  father,  Henry  II,  died,  and  he  only  took 
time  to  hurry  over  to  England  for  a  two  months'  stay,  in 
order  to  be  crowned  king  and  to  arrange  for  his  absence  in 
the  Holy  Land.  During  his  stay  he  collected  money  from 
his  English  subjects  by  every  means  in  his  power,  however 
unjust,  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  Crusade  upon  which 
his  heart  was  set.  It  is  said  that  he  declared  he  would 
sell  London  itself,  if  he  could  get  enough  money  for  it. 


THE  CRUSADES  155 

The  government  of  England  was  to  be  cared  for  dur- 
ing his  absence  by  two  regents.  His  brother  John,  who 
was  the  sort  of  person  Hkely  to  make  trouble,  was  recom- 
pensed for  having  no  share  in  the  government  of  the 
kingdom  by  the  grant  of  an  enormous  tract  of  land. 
Then  King  Richard  hastened  back  across  the  Channel, 
to  continue  his  preparations  for  the  Crusade.  He  had 
little  love  for  England  and  was  always  glad  to  leave  it, 
for  he  was  a  Frenchman  at  heart,  and  happiest  when  he 
was  in  the  fair  land  of  France.  Indeed,  during  the  ten 
years  of  his  reign,  he  did  not  spend  more  than  six 
months  in  his  English  kingdom. 

Richard  the  Lion-H carted  was  not,  however,  the  only 
one  w4io  had  thrown  himself  heart  and  soul  into  this 
Crusade.  When  the  news  of  Saladin's  capture  of  Jeru- 
salem reached  Europe,  every  one  was  filled  with  grief 
and  horror  at  the  fall  of  the  Holy  City.  The  Pope  is 
said  to  have  died  broken-hearted  with  sorrow  over  it, 
and  all  men  alike  —  princes  and  bishops,  priests  and 
knights  and  common  people  —  bent  their  thoughts  and 
energies  to  raising  money  and  men  for  a  great  army 
that  should  win  back  what  had  been  lost.  There  was 
no  lack  of  volunteers,  for  countless  numbers  flocked 
to  the  standards  of  the  distinguished  leaders  of  the  ex- 
pedition. To  help  meet  the  expenses  a  heavy  tax,  called 
the  Saladin  tax,  was  imposed  on  those  who  remained  at 
home.    It  amounted  to  a  tenth  of  each  man's  personal 


156      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

property  and  income,  and  those  who  refused  to  pay  it 
were  to  be  excommunicated.-^ 

Failure  of  the  Third  Crusade.  The  leaders  of  the  Third 
Crusade  were  three  famous  sovereigns  —  Richard  the 
Lion-Hearted,  king  of  England;  Philip  Augustus,  king 
of  France ;  and  Frederick  Barbarossa  (Frederick  Red- 
beard),  the  renowned  emperor  of  Germany. 

Frederick  Barbarossa  was  drowned  on  his  way  to 
Palestine,  but  Richard  and  Philip  with  their  armies 
succeeded  in  reaching  the  Holy  Land  and  in  taking 
an  important  Saracen  town,  Acre,  where  they  made  many 
Saracens  captives. 

This  was  but  the  beginning  of  their  successes.  Richard 
was  said  to  have  performed  the  most  amazing  deeds  of 
valor  upon  every  occasion,  and  to  have  proved  himself  a 
wonder  of  courage  and  daring.  At  the  same  time,  how- 
ever, disputes  w^ere  constantly  arising  between  him  and 
Philip,  neither  being  willing  to  yield  first  place  to  the 
other.  Finally  Philip,  in  disgust,  sailed  away  for  France, 
leaving  Richard  to  undertake  alone  the  recapture  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  conquering  of  Saladin. 

But  this  the  English  king  was  not  able  to  accomplish. 
He  only  succeeded  in  concluding  a  truce  with  the  enemy 
for  three  years. 

1  An  excommunicated  person  could  not  enter  a  church,  or  be  married,  or  re- 
ceive a  Christian  burial,  or  hold  property.  Sometimes  people  were  even  forbid- 
den to  speak  to  him. 


King  Richard  landing  in  Palestine 


57 


158      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Immediately  upon  the  conclusion  of  this  truce  a  num- 
ber of  the  Crusaders  in  Richard's  army  hastened  to  make 
the  short  journey  from  their  encampment  into  Jerusalem, 
that  they  might  visit  all  the  spots  held  sacred  by  Chris- 
tians. But  Richard  himself  was  not  among  them.  He 
never  entered  the  Holy  City  or  saw  the  Holy  Sepulcher. 
Tradition  says  that  he  disdained  to  visit  as  a  pilgrim  the 
place  that  he  had  hoped  to  enter  as  a  conqueror. 

His  great  Crusade  was  practically  a  failure.  Yet  before 
he  sailed  for  home  he  declared  to  his  valiant  foe,  Saladin, 
his  intention  of  returning  to  renew  the  holy  war  as  soon 
as  might  be ;  and  Saladin  made  the  courtly  reply,  "  I 
would  rather  be  conquered,  if  conquered  I  must  be,  by 
Richard  the  Lion- Hearted  than  by  any  other  prince  my 
eyes  have  ever  seen." 

Long  after  the  great  English  king  and  the  great 
Saladin  were  dead,  and  Saracens  and  Christians  fought 
no  more,  tales  were  still  told  among  the  Turks  of  the 
ieats  of  Richard's  mighty  battle-ax,  that  weighed  twenty 
pounds ;  and  when  a  Saracen's  horse  started  with  fright, 
his  rider  would  exclaim :  "  What  dost  thou  fear  ?  Dost 
thou  think  King  Richard  is  near  ?  " 

King  Richard  arrived  in  France  only  after  a  long  and 
adventurous  journey,  and  it  was  in  France,  as  he  was  lay- 
ing siege  to  the  castle  of  a  rebellious  vassal,  that  he  met 
his  death  from  an  arrow.  He  had  no  children  to  succeed 
to  the  throne  of  England  and  to  his  French  dukedoms, 


THE  CRUSADES  159 

SO  they  fell  to  his  brother  John,  who  had  been  treacher- 
ously plotting  against  him  for  many  years,  and  who  was 
a  most  unwelcome  successor,  in  English  eyes,  to  the 
lion-hearted  hero  of  the  Crusades. 

The  results  of  the  Crusades.  There  were  at  least  four 
more  great  Crusades  after  the  third.  But  in  1291,  almost 
two  hundred  years  after  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  in 
the  First  Crusade,  the  Christians  were  finally  conquered, 
broke  up  their  settlements  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  left 
it  to  the  Mohammedans. 

The  two  hundred  years  of  intercourse  that  the  Cru- 
sades brought  about  between  western  Europe  and  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  had  wrought  many 
changes.  The  English,  French,  and  German  knights 
who  had  gone  in  such  vast  numbers  over  land  and  sea  to 
the  far-away  Eastern  world  had  come  in  contact  with 
two  different  civilizations  that  were  far  in  advance  of 
their  own.  In  Constantinople  they  had  seen  the  refine- 
ment and  elegance  of  the  Eastern  Roman  Empire,  where 
Greek  was  still  spoken  and  the  old  Greek  books  still 
read.  In  Syria  and  Palestine  they  had  learned  how 
far  superior  to  themselves  the  Asiatic  people  were  in 
learning,  arts,  and  manufactures.  All  this  served  to 
open  their  minds  to  new  ideas,  while  at  the  same  time 
it  turned  the  hatred  and  contempt  with  which  they 
had  at  first  regarded  the  Mohammedans  into  respect 
and  admiration. 


i6o     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Trade,  too,  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  worlds 
was  greatly  increased  by  the  Crusades.  Those  Italian 
merchants  who  had  brought  supplies  from  Genoa  and 
Venice  and  marketed  them  to  the  crusading  armies  in 
Palestine  found  many  wares  there  to  take  back  in  their 
ships  and  sell  at  home,  in  Italy  and  France;  for  traders 
came  from  all  parts  of  Syria,  and  even  from  as  far  as 
India,  bringing  pearls  and  ivory,  silks  and  tapestries, 
wines,  fruits,  and  spices,  to  sell  to  the  merchants  in  the 
harbors  of  Palestine,  and  Italian  traders  found  a  ready 
sale  for  all  these  things  in  Europe. 

Section  26.    Knighthood 

Great  changes  also  came  about  in  the  order  of  knights 
during  the  Crusades.  When  we  first  heard  of  knights,  in 
connection  wdth  the  feudal  system,  they  were  simply  men 
who  held  land  in  fief  from  the  king  or  from  some  overlord, 
and  who  were  rich  enough  to  live  without  working  and 
to  perform  military  service  for  the  king  on  horseback. 
But  during  the  Crusades  there  had  grown  up  special 
forms  and  ceremonies  in  connection  with  knighthood. 

The  training  of  a  knight.  A  knight's  training  began 
when  he  was  a  little  boy.  Until  he  was  eight  or  nine 
years  old  he  lived  at  home  in  his  father's  castle,  learning 
how  to  ride,  how  to  shoot  with  bow  and  arrow,  and  how 
to  follow  the  hunt  with  the  castle  retainers.  After  that 
he  was  sent  away  to  the  court  of  the  king  or  some  great 


THE  CRUSADES  l6l 

noble,  to  be  trained  still  further  in  knightly  accomplish- 
ments. He  was  now  called  a  "  page,"  and  his  duties 
were  to  attend  the  lord  and  lady  of  the  castle,  to  wait 
upon  and  serve  them,  to  learn  from  the  one  courteous 
behavior  for  all  occasions  and  from  the  other  how  to 
handle  a  lance  and  carry  a  shield,  how  to  fence,  and 
how  to  hunt  with  hawk  and  hound.  He  learned,  too, 
to  play  chess, —  the  knight's  favorite  game, —  to  wait  at 
table,  to  write  verses  and  sing  them,  and  to  be  modest 
and  chivalrous  in  his  bearing  toward  all. 

When  he  was  fifteen  or  sixteen  he  received  the  title 
of  "  squire  "  and  was  instructed  in  w^iatever  else  was 
needful  for  a  warrior  to  know  —  how  to  wear  armor  and 
wield  all  the  knightly  weapons,  and  to  school  himself 
to  bear  heat  and  cold  and  every  discomfort  without  com- 
plaining. Now,  too,  he  attended  the  lord  in  battle,  carried 
his  arms  for  him  and  cleaned  them,  groomed  his  horse, 
and  stood  ready  to  assist  him  in  every  way. 

At  last,  w^hen  he  had  reached  manhood  and  by  his 
courage  and  chivalry  had  proved  himself  worthy  of  the 
honor,  knighthood  was  conferred  upon  him.  After  sol- 
emnly confessing  his  sins  and  keeping  watch  over  his 
arms  all  night  in  the  church,  he  laid  his  sword  on  the  altar 
to  signify  a  life  of  service  to  God.  Then  his  sword  belt 
and  spurs  were  bound  upon  him,  and  the  lord,  striking 
him  lightly  on  the  shoulders  with  the  flat  of  his  sword, 
dubbed  him  a  knight. 


1 62      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

A  knight's  armor.  The  armor  that  a  knight  wore  when 
he  went  forth  to  do  battle  was  a  marvelously  comphcated 
affair.  At  the  time  of  the  First  Crusade  a  knight  was 
dressed  from  head  to  foot  in  a  loosely  fitting  garment  of 
small  steel  rings,  linked  together  so  closely  that  a  weapon 


The  Knight's  Vigil 

(From  the  painting  by  Pettie) 

could  scarcely  penetrate  it,  and  called  the  "  coat  of  mail." 
He  was  further  protected  by  a  hood  of  mail,  with  a  guard 
for  the  nose  and  brow.  It  was  almost  impossible  to  rec- 
ognize a  knight  in  full  armor.  In  order,  therefore,  that 
he  might  be  known  to  his  friends,  each  knight  had  his 
"  arms "   pictured  on   his   shield  or   embroidered    on  a 


THE  CRUSADES  163 

sleeveless  or  short-sleeved  coat  —  sometimes  called  a 
tabard  —  which  was  worn  over  the  armor.  In  later  times 
the  suits  of  armor  were  made  entirely  of  plates  of  iron 
and  worn  with  big  iron  helmets. 

The  "  arms  "  were  some  device,  adopted  by  the  knight 
for  his  own,  for  example,  a  fleur-de-lis,  or  a  cross,  or  a 
lion.  For  weapons  he  had  a  wooden  shield  covered  with 
leather;  a  sword,  which  was  his  especial  joy  and  pride, 
to  be  guarded  as  his  life;  and  a  lance 
made  of  ash  wood.  Sometimes,  also,  he 
used  an  ax  in  battle,  and  sometimes  a 
bow  and  arrows.  King  Richard  was 
famed  for  his  skill  in  shooting  with 
the  bow. 

As  we  should  expect,  a  knight  and  his     ^^"^^  ^]^    ^'^^'^  ^^ 

^        '  ^  ^  King  Richard  I 

horse  were  almost  one,  and  the  knight 
loved  his  steed  like  a  dear  friend.  He  protected  him,  too, 
with  armor  and  was  seldom  separated  from  him.  If  he 
was  not  riding  him  into  battle,  he  was  hunting  the  deer 
or  wild  boar  on  his  back.  One  crusader  talks  thus  to  his 
war  horse  :  "  Thou  art  w^eary,  O  my  steed ;  right  willingly 
would  I  charge  the  Saracens  again,  but  I  see  thou  canst 
not  help  me.  Yet  I  may  not  blame  thee,  for  well  hast 
thou  served  me  all  the  day  long.  Couldst  thou  only  bear 
me  to  France,  none  should  saddle  thee  for  twenty  days, 
and  thou  shouldst  feed  on  sifted  barley  and  choicest  hay, 
drinking  from  vessels  of  gold,  and  clad  in  fine  silks." 


i64     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Questions,  l.  When  did  Mohammed  live  ?  Do  you  know  what  the 
Koran  is  ?  2.  Why  should  •  the  Pope  have  taken  so  much  interest  in 
the  Crusades  ?  3.  How  far  is  Constantinople  from  Jerusalem  ?  4.  Do  the 
Turks  still  rule  over  the  Holy  Land  ?  5.  Can  you  find  the  derivation  of 
the  word  ^^  Crusade  "  ?  6.  Can  you  tell  the  name  of  the  latest  conqueror 
of  the  Holy  Land  ? 

References,  Cheyney,  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  1 71-173 
(Richard  the  Lion-Hearted) ;  pp.  173-176  (Richard  and  the  Third 
Crusade).  Robinson.  Readings  in  European  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  312- 
316  (Pope  Urban's  address  at  Clermont);  pp.  316-321  (the  First  Cru- 
sade); pp.  321-329  (letters  of  the  Crusaders);  pp.  340-343  (the 
emperor's  court  at  Constantinople).  Bates  and  Cowman.  English  His- 
tory Told  by  English  Poets,  p.  67  (Lament  of  Richard  during  his 
Imprisonment) ;  p.  69  (King  Richard  in  Sherwood  Forest).  Scott. 
The  Talisman. 


CHAPTER  XI 

KING  JOHN  AND  THE  CHARTER 

John  becomes  king.   His  defiance  of  Pope  Innocent  III.    The  interdict,    John's 

submission  to  the  Pope.    His  persecution  of  the  Jews.     The  barons  and  the 

Great  Charter.    Provisions  of  the  Great  Charter 

Section  27.   John  and  Pope  Innocent  III 

Character  of  King  John.  King  John,  nicknamed  John 
Lackland/  the  youngest  son  of  Henry  II  and  successor  to 
his  brother  Richard  the  Lion- Hearted,  was  the  worst  mon- 
arch that  ever  sat  upon  the  English  throne.  He  was 
clever,  but  he  was  also  mean,  tyrannical,  and  cruel,  with  no 
sense  of  honor  and  no  feelings  of  humanity.  He  had  no 
religious  sentiment  himself  and  no  regard  for  the  religion 
of  other  men.  He  jeered  at  the  services  of  the  Church 
even  when  he  was  taking  part  in  them.  He  had  no  inter- 
est in  the  welfare  of  his  subjects,  nor  in  anything  but  his 
own  selfish  desires,  and  there  is  no  record  of  any  good  or 
kindly  deed  to  his  credit  throughout  his  reign. 

King  John  had  not  been  long  on  the  throne  before  he 
had  a  quarrel  with  the  ruling  pope,  Innocent  III. 

Pope  Innocent  III  was  one  of  the  greatest  and  most 
powerful   popes  that   ever  occupied    the   papal    throne. 

1  So  called  because  his  father  had  left  him  no  lands  in  England  or  France. 

165 


i66      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

He  was  deeply  interested  not  only  in  the  religious  but 
also  in  the  political  affairs  of  every  European  nation  of 
the  time,  and  he  had  a  wide  influence  with  kings  and 
emperors.  Just  at  this  time  it  was  necessary  to  elect  a 
new  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  England,  and  Pope 
Innocent  appointed  Stephen  Langton  to  the  vacancy. 

Stephen  Langton  was  duly  elected  —  a  man  of  excel- 
lent judgment,  fine  scholarship,  and  noble  character.  This, 
however,  was  not  at  all  the  sort  of  man  that  John  de- 
sired. What  he  wanted  was  some  one  whose  opinions 
agreed  with  his,  or  who  would  change  them  at  his  com- 
mand. Furthermore,  he  wished  to  assert  his  independence 
of  the  Pope.  Therefore  he  announced  that  he  would  not 
accept  Stephen  Langton  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
If  the  Pope  insisted,  he  declared  that  there  would  be  no 
further  communication  between  England  and  Rome. 

Innocent  III  then  dispatched  a  letter  exhorting  his 
"  well-beloved  son,"  as  he  called  John,  not  to  hold  out 
against  God  and  the  Church,  lest  trouble  come  upon  him. 
Many  bishops,  too,  came  to  plead  with  the  king  not  to 
bring  the  shame  of  an  interdict -"^  on  his  people  by  his 
obstinacy.  This  opposition  only  threw  John  into  a  frenzy 
of  rage.  He  swore  that  if  his  dominion  were  laid  under 
an  interdict  by  the  Pope,  he  would  have  his  revenge  on 
every  clergyman  that  he  could  find  in  England. 

1  An  interdict  cut  off  a  whole  country  from  the  privileges  of  the  Church,  some- 
what as  excommunication  did  an  individual. 


KING  JOHN  AND  THE  CHARTER 


167 


The  interdict.  John's  conduct  finally  brought  down  on 
the  country  the  dreaded  punishment  of  the  Pope's  inter- 
dict. The  whole  of  England  was  laid  under  it.  Churches 
were  closed  and  all  church  services  prohibited.  Except 
baptism  of  children  and  penance,  no  church  sacrament 


Old  English  Church 


was  performed  by  the  priests  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land.  The  bodies  of  the  dead  were  carried 
out  of  the  cities  and  towns  and  buried  in  roadside  ditches, 
without  prayers  or  the  attendance  of  priests.  In  an  age 
such  as  that  one,  when  religious  devotions  were  a  part 
of  the  everyday  life  of  the  people,  an  interdict  fell  like 
a  terrible  blow  on  every  one,  rich  and  poor,  young  and 
old,  alike. 


1 68      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

However,  the  interdict  was  far  from  bringing  John  to 
terms.  On  the  contrary,  he  set  out,  as  he  had  threatened,  to 
persecute  every  one  connected  with  the  Church.  Bishops, 
priests,  abbots,  and  monks  were  deprived  of  their  prop- 
erty and  left  with  Httle  or  nothing  to  hve  upon.  From 
those  barons  who  sympathized  with  the  Church  he  de- 
manded hostages  as  surety  of  their  good  behavior,  and 
these  hostages  were  no  less  than  their  eldest  sons.  He 
imprisoned  them,  and  in  many  cases  when  he  doubted  the 
loyalty  of  the  father,  he  let  the  children  starve  to  death 
or  had  them  hanged.  One  noble  lady  boldly  declared 
that  she  would  never  give  up  her  son  into  the  hands  of 
so  wicked  a  man,  and  for  these  words  of  defiance  she  and 
her  husband  and  family  had  to  flee  to  Ireland  for  safety. 

After  the  interdict  had  lasted  for  many  months  with  no 
sign  of  yielding  on  the  part  of  the  king,  Pope  Innocent 
proceeded  to  excommunicate  him.  The  few  bishops  who 
were  still  in  the  country  were  afraid  to  obey  the  Pope's 
orders  to  proclaim  the  excommunication  to  the  people 
once  a  week.  Nevertheless,  the  news  spread  all  over 
England.  Every  one  was  talking  of  it,  and  every  one  who 
dared  shunned  the  presence  of  the  king  and  avoided 
speaking  to  him,  as  the  decree  enjoined  them  to  do. 

At  last  the  Pope,  seeing  that  John  had  yielded  neither 
to  the  interdict  nor  to  the  excommunication,  took  a  final 
step.  He  threatened  to  take  his  throne  away  from  him, 
and  invited  the  French  king,  who  was  only  too  glad  of 


KING  JOHN  AND  THE  CHARTER  169 

the  opportunity,  to  accept  the  crown  and  become  ruler 
of  England  in  case  John  should  still  resist  the  Church. 

King  John's  submission  to  the  Pope.  This  brought  John 
to  his  knees  at  last.  When  he  learned  that  Philip 
Augustus  was  about  to  invade  England  with  a  large 
army,  and  realized  that  there  w^ere  very  few  of  his  owai 
barons  whose  loyalty  he  could  depend  upon,  he  at  once 
granted  not  only  everything  that  the  Pope  demanded 
of  him,  but  a  good  deal  besides. 

Langton  was  at  once  installed  as  archbishop.  The 
bishops  w^ho  had  fled  from  England  were  recalled,  and 
John  agreed  to  restore  all  the  Church  property  that  he 
had  confiscated.  This  was  all  that  the  Pope  had  asked  of 
him.  But  the  king,  to  make  his  penance  complete,  swore 
to  become  the  Pope's  vassal  and  to  hand  over  to  him,  as 
overlord,  his  dominions  of  England  and  Ireland,  for  which 
he  vowed  that  he  would  pay  a  certain  tribute  each  year. 
So  at  last  the  decree  of  excommunication  was  withdrawn, 
and  the  interdict,  which  had  lasted  for  more  than  six 
years,  was  removed  from  England.  Church  doors  were 
opened  again  and  church  bells  rang  out  once  more  for 
morning  and  evening  service. 

John  and  his  Jewish  subjects.  John  still  went  on  in  his 
evil  ways,  however.  Among  other  things,  he  treated  the 
Jews  in  his  kingdom  in  the  most  shocking  and  inhuman 
fashion  in  order  to  get  possession  of  their  money.  Col- 
onies of  Jews  had  been  flourishing  and  growing  rich  in 


I/O      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

England  for  many  years,  although  they  were  objects  of  a 
cruel  and  unjust  persecution.  As  they  were  not  members 
of  the  Church,  they  did  not  enjoy  its  protection,  nor  were 
they  protected  by  the  laws  of  the  country.  They  lived 
solely  under  the  personal  protection  of  the  king,  and  were, 
indeed,  looked  upon  almost  as  his  property,  to  do  with  as 
he  would.  Yet  few  people  at  this  time  contributed  so 
largely  to  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  country  as 
they  did,  by  their  industry,  their  frugal  habits,  and  their 
peaceable  lives.  When  a  cathedral  or  castle  was  to  be 
built,  it  was  the  Jewish  money  lenders  who  advanced  the 
funds  necessary  to  carry  out  the  work.  The  Jewish  rabbis, 
too,  were  among  the  most  learned  men  of  the  age.  They 
were  familiar  with  medical  and  other  sciences  and  served 
as  teachers  to  those  who  wished  instruction  of  this  sort. 
In  many  ways  these  persecuted  people  set  an  example 
of  right  living  to  the  intolerant  English  among  whom 
they  lived. 

Section  28.    King  John  and  the  Magna  Charta 

The  king  and  his  barons.  From  what  we  have  learned 
of  English  kings  up  to  this  time,  it  is  plain  that  they 
exercised  an  almost  unlimited  power  over  the  lives  and 
property  of  their  subjects.  If  the  king  was  a  bad  man,  or 
even  a  careless  or  weak  one,  he  could  inflict  endless  suf- 
fering and  injustice  on  his  people.  He  could  imprison  a 
man  or  put  him  to  death,  if  he  chose,  without  even  being 


KING  JOHN  AND  THE  CHARTER  171 

questioned  by  anybody.  He  was  the  owner  of  every  acre 
of  land  that  his  barons  and  knights  occupied  as  vassals, 
and  he  had  the  right  to  take  it  away  from  them  if  they 
broke  their  oath  of  allegiance.  It  was  hard  for  the  people 
to  think  of  resisting  even  the  most  unjust  king.  Yet  that 
was  what  John's  barons  did  in  12 15  when  they  forced  him 
to  sign  a  great  charter  of  rights,  the  Magna  Charta. 

For  some  time,  as  we  may  well  guess,  the  barons  had 
been  discontented  with  John's  treatment  of  them.  His 
treatment  of  their  sons,  when  he  held  them  as  hostages, 
had  been  most  dishonorable  and  cruel,  and  he  had  abused 
his  power  in  numberless  ways.  The  time  had  come,  the 
barons  thought,  when  this  state  of  things  was  no  longer 
to  be  endured.  The  king  must  be  made  to  understand 
how  far  he  could  go. 

Archbishop  Langton  was  one  of  the  most  active  in  this 
protest.  One  day  in  a  great  meeting  held  by  the  barons 
in  London  while  the  king  was  away  fighting  in  France, 
Langton  brought  out  an  old  charter  granted  by  an  earlier 
king,  more  than  a  hundred  years  before,  and  read  to  the 
assembled  barons  the  promises  which  had  been  made  to 
the  people  then ;  and  every  man  present  resolved  then  and 
there  that  John  must  be  forced  to  keep  these  promises. 

In  the  year  1215  a  great  company  of  barons  came  to 
him  and  demanded  that  he  grant  them  all  the  rights  and 
liberties  set  forth  in  a  document  which  Archbishop  Lang- 
ton and  the  barons  had  drawn  up.    When  Langton  read 


172      INTRODUCTION   TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  paper  to  the  king,  John  asked  tlie  barons,  in  a  fury, 
why  they  had  not  demanded  his  kingdom  also,  and  swore 
that  "  he  never  would  grant  them  such  liberties  as  would 
make  him  their  slave." 

John  signs  the  Magna  Charta.  The  barons,  however, 
were  not  to  be  turned  back.  Finding  that  the  king  still 
refused  their  demands,  they  gathered  together  a  large 
force  of  knights  and  barons  and  common  citizens  and 
marched  against  him.  When  he  learned  of  their  coming, 
and  realized  that  of  all  his  subjects  there  were  not  more 
than  seven  or  eight  knights  upon  whom  he  could  depend, 
he  gave  in  immediately,  for  he  was  as  cowardly  as  he  was 
overbearing,  and  announced  that  for  the  sake  of  peace  and 
the  honor  of  the  kingdom  he  w^ould  grant  them  all  the  laws 
and  liberties  they  asked.  On  the  fifteenth  of  June,  12 15, 
King  John  and  a  great  party  of  barons  met  together  in  a 
wide  green  meadow,  called  Runnymede,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Thames,  not  far  from  the  city  of  London  and  near  the 
castle  of  Windsor,  where  the  king  was  staying ;  and  here 
the  Magna  Charta  was  signed  and  the  king's  seal  set  upon 
it.  To-day  in  the  British  Museum  in  London  this  docu- 
ment, the  most  famous  in  all  English  history,  may  still  be 
seen,  with  the  royal  seal  hanging  from  it. 

Provisions  of  the  Magna  Charta.  What  were  the  restric- 
tions that  this  famous  Great  Charter  imposed  on  the 
king?  It  would  be  too  great  a  task  to  go  over  them  all, 
for   there   are    sixty-three   separate   articles.     The   most 


^m 

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174      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

important  one,  perhaps,  is  that  which  declares  that  what- 
ever provisions  were  made  for  the  benefit  of  the  barons 
and  knights,  who  were  vassals  of  the  king,  must  in  turn 
be  observed  by  them  toward  their  own  vassals,  and  so 
on  down  to  the  common  men  of  small  property  and  no 
title.  Thus  the  liberties  that  the  charter  secured  were 
for  the-  whole  body  of  Englishmen,  not  for  the  ruling 
class  alone. 

Another  provision  reads  :  ''  No  free  man  shall  be  taken, 
or  imprisoned,  or  dispossessed,  or  outlawed,  or  banished, 
or  in  any  way  injured,  except  by  the  legal  judgment  of 
his  peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the  land."  Then  follows  one, 
in  which  the  king  makes  the  promise,  "  To  no  one  will 
we  sell,  to  no  one  wdll  w^e  deny  or  delay,  right  or  justice." 
King  John  had  been  violating  both  of  these  articles  all 
his  life,  as  for  that  matter  had  many  kings  before  him. 

Another  article  declared  that  the  king  was  not  to  take 
another  man's  timber  for  building  castles  or  for  any  other 
purpose,  without  the  consent  of  the  owner.  Nor  could 
the  king's  men  take  a  peasant's  horse  and  cart  to  use  in 
hauling  unless  the  owner  was  willing. 

Merchants  from  friendly  countries  were  now  to  be  al- 
lowed to  come  and  go  freely.  Heretofore  the  king  had 
not  permitted  them  to  enter  or  leave  England  without 
special  license ;  every  time  a  French  merchant  wished  to 
come  over  into  England  to  sell  his  silks  or  his  jewelry, 
he  had  to   send   to  the   king  for  permission.    We  may 


KING  JOHN  AND  THE  CHARTER  175 

imagine  that  English  trade  with  foreign  countries  did 
not  flourish  under  these  conditions. 

A  council  of  twenty-five  barons  was  to  be  appointed 
to  see  that  the  king  kept  all  the  promises  in  the  Great 
Charter.  If  he  ventured  to  break  any  of  them  the  barons 
had  the  right  to  declare  war  against  him.  The  document 
was  made  public  throughout  all  England,  so  that  every 
one  in  the  land  might  know  what  the  king  had  agreed  to 
do ;  and  every  English  king  since  that  time  has  been 
bound  by  the  promises  of  this  charter.  If  a  king  neglected 
or  broke  them  the  people  sooner  or  later  brought  the 
Magna  Charta  to  his  notice  and  forced  him  to  abide  by  it. 

John  himself  made  no  secret  of  his  intention  to  break 
his  promises  as  soon  as  he  was  able,  but  he  found  that  the 
barons  were  too  strong  for  him,  and  after  a  year  of  fruit- 
less struggle  against  them  he  died  of  a  fever,  brought  on, 
so  the  chronicler  of  his  reign  tells  us,  by  eating  too  many 
peaches  and  drinking  too  much  cider  —  a  shameful 
ending  to  the  life  of  a  despicable  ruler. 

Questions.  1.  Do  you  know  whether  the  king's  eldest  son  is  now  sup- 
posed to  succeed  his  father  on  the  English  throne  ?  2.  What  is  a  host- 
age ?  3.  What  is  a  charter  ?  4.  What  was  the  use  of  a  seal  ?  5.  Can  a 
person  be  left  indefinitely  in  prison  to-day  without  being  brought  to  trial  ? 
6.  Who  was  the  most  powerful  man  in  Europe  in  1200  ?  7.  Why  do  we 
consider  John's  reign  an  important  one  in  English  history  ? 

References.  Cheyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  1 79-181 
(the  rising  of  the  barons)  ;  pp.  182-187  (the  Great  Charter).  Bates 
and  CoMAN.    English  History  Told  by  English  Poets,  p.  81  (King  John). 


CHAPTER  XII 

COUNTRY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

Life  on  the  manor.    The  serf.    Life  in  castles.    The  manners  and  amusements 
of  knights  and  ladies.    Minstrelsy.    Tournaments.    Chivalry 

Section  29.    On  the  Manor 

If  we  look  back  over  the  chapters  that  have  gone  before, 
we  shall  see  that  for  the  most  part  we  have  talked  of 
kings  and  bishops,  of  barons,  knights,  and  nobles,  and 
their  castles  and  manor  houses;  and  that  very  little  has 
been  said  of  the  common  people  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
But  there  were  many  little  hamlets  in  England  in  which 
the  men  who  tilled  the  soil  had  their  homes ;  there  were 
towns  where  merchants  and  workmen  lived ;  and  there 
were  monasteries  and  convents  where  men  and  women 
devoted  their  lives  to  religion  and  good  works. 

Farms  in  the  Middle  Ages.  There  were  no  big  manu- 
facturing towns  in  England  then.  On  the  great  estates 
around  the  casdes,  manor  houses,  and  monasteries,  farm- 
ing was  the  chief  occupation  of  the  people.  Let  us  pic- 
ture first  the  life  of  the  men  who  tilled  the  soil.  What 
was  their  work,  how  did  they  live,  and  what  comforts 

and  pleasures  had  they  ? 

176 


COUNTRY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     177 

We  may  imagine  ourselves,  then,  traveling  along  an 
English  road  in  the  thirteenth  century.  We  should  be  on 
horseback,  for  there  were  probably  not  more  than  a  dozen 
carriages  in  the  whole  country  at  this  time,  and  they  be- 
longed, of  course,  to  the  king  and  to  a  few  of  the  great 
nobles.  Moreover  the  carriages  were  so  heavy  and  so  lack- 
ing in  springs,  and  the  roads,  even  the  best,  were  so  full 


A  State  Carriage  of  the  Fourteenth  Century 


of  holes  and  so  often  flooded  with  water  or  hub-deep  with 
mud,  that  there  would  be  little  comfort  in  riding  in  them. 
As  our  horses  picked  their  way  over  these  bad  roads 
and  through  forests  in  which  robbers  or  outlaws  might  be 
lying  in  wait  for  us,  we  should  every  now  and  then  come 
upon  a  cleared  stretch  of  a  hundred  or  two  hundred  acres 
of  land  divided  up  into  a  great  number  of  narrow  strips, 
where  wheat,  or  oats,  or  barley,  or  rye  would  be  growing. 
These  strips  would  be  separated  from  each  other  only 
by  lines  of  grassy  sod  and  the  whole  tract  would  look 
much  like  a  patchwork  quilt. 


178      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

There  would  be  no  houses  scattered  about  over  this 
land,  but  as  we  rode  on  we  should  come  to  a  little  vil- 
lage of  ten,  or  twenty,  or  fifty  cottages  grouped  around  a 
plot  of  ground  which  later  came  to  be  called  the  village 
"  green  "  ;  or  perhaps  ranged  along  two  lanes  that  crossed 
in  the  center  of  the  village.  Besides  these  cottages  there 
would  be  a  church  near  by,  and  not  far  away  would  be 
the  home  of  the  lord  to  whom  the  land  and  the  village 
belonged.  The  lord  might  be  a  noble,  and  in  that  case 
it  would  be  a  castle  that  looked  down  on  the  fields  and 
villages.  If  he  were  simply  a  knight,  his  home  would 
be  a  good-sized  manor  house. 

Manor  houses  were  built  of  stone  or  timber,  with 
gardens,  orchards,  and  outbuildings  around  them.  There 
were  barns  for  the  cattle,  a  mill  where  the  flour  for  every- 
body on  the  estate  was  ground,  a  dairy  for  the  making 
of  cheese,  a  building  for  the  brewing  of  beer  and  ale, 
and,  if  the  lord  of  the  manor  was  a  wealthy  man  and 
much  given  to  hunting,  there  were  special  quarters  for 
his  horses,  dogs,  and  falcons.  Almost  everything  that 
was  needed  on  the  manor  was  grown  or  made  there.  The 
spinning  and  weaving  of  cloth,  the  carpenter  work,  the 
blacksmithing,  were  all  provided  for.  The  manor  house 
was  often  called  a  "  hall,"  because  the  main  room  in  it  was 
a  huge  hall  in  which  the  family  lived,  ate,  and  slept. 

The  whole  manor,  with  its  fields  and  meadows  and 
woods,  its  manor  house  and  little  church,  and  its  group 


COUNTRY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     179 

of  cottages,  was  often  called  the  "  vill."  The  lord  of  the 
manor  had  entire  control  of  the  vill.  Part  of  the  land  he 
cultivated  for  himself  or  rented  to  free  tenants ;  the  rest 
of  it  was  portioned  out  and  farmed  by  serfs,  or  villeins, 
as  they  were  called,  whose  fathers  and  grandfathers 
before  them  had  farmed  the  same  acres  and  who  were 


^V, 


English  Manor  House  of  the  Thirteenth  Century 

considered  so  much  a  part  of  the  soil  that  if  the  land 
passed  into  another  lord's  hands  they  went  with  it. 

Serfs.  There  were  few  w^ays  in  which  serfs  could  escape 
from  the  manor  and  become  freemen.  We  find  an  account 
of  a  villein  who  somehow  made  enough  money  to  buy  the 
freedom  of  his  father  and  of  all  his  brothers  and  sisters. 
But  this  cannot  have  happened  very  often.  Most  serfs 
who  gained  their  freedom  did  so  by  running  away. 


i8o      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

The  serfs  held  various  amounts  of  land,  from  half  an 
acre  up  to  forty  or  fifty.  Those  who  held  a  very  small 
portion  went  by  the  name  of  "  cotters,"  because  they  had 
only  the  bit  of  land  about  their  cottage.  More  than  half 
of  the  serf's  time  had  to  be  spent  in  the  service  of  his 
lord,  which  left  little  for  the  care  of  his  own  acres  and 
the  raising  of  his  own  crops. 

A  list  of  serfs  on  a  great  estate  in  Sussex  gives  their 
names  and  their  duties  to  the  lord  of  the  manor,  and  also 
what  the  lord  owed  to  them.  One  serf  who  occupied  a 
house  and  thirty  acres  had  to  pay  two  shillings  a  year  to 
the  lord  and  bring  him  a  cock  and  two  hens  every  Christ- 
mas. He  had  to  harrow  for  him  two  days  every  spring  with 
his  own  horse  and  harrow,  as  well  as  do  many  days'  work 
of  hauling,  mowing  grass,  harvesting,  and  cutting  wood 
during  the  year.  It  is  plain  to  see  that  he  must  have  been 
kept  pretty  busy.  In  return  for  all  this  the  lord  agreed  to 
give  the  serf  three  meals  a  day  w4iile  he  was  working  for 
him.  Each  meal  was  to  consist  of  beef,  cheese,  and  broth, 
and  all  three  meals  were  not  to  cost  more  than  two  and  a 
half  pence.  The  serf  could  not  sell  any  of  his  cattle  with- 
out the  lord's  permission.  He  could  not  even  marry  with- 
out his  consent.  The  free  tenants  were  better  off  than 
the  serfs.  They  paid  a  low  rent  for  their  land,  and  from 
time  to  time  gave  the  lord  hens,  eggs,  and  other  produce. 

All  these  restrictions  must  have  made  the  lot  of  the 
poor  laborer  a  pretty  hard  one.    And  there  was  nothing 


COUNTRY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     i8i 

in  his  life  at  home  that  helped  to  make  it  easier.  The 
little  cottage  in  which  he  lived  looked  more  like  a  mound 
of  earth  or  a  pile  of  straw  than  a  house,  thatched  over  as 
it  was  with  straw  or  covered  with  turf.    If  the  serf  owned 


1  .i  J.^ 

^m 

■^y 

»^^C^»^\ 

%.  -"•« — ^nB 

WM 

^1 

^^^Sm     '^-^    %^m 

I^J:^  JMM 

1 

1 

^^^f^^^j"  ^**^  -  -^ll^iy 

Ax  English  Village 

any  cattle  he  kept  them  in  a  shed  built  on  to  the  cottage. 
A  hole  in  the  roof  was  the  only  chimney  that  his  house 
possessed.  Probably  there  was  no  window  at  all,  or,  if 
any,  so  small  a  hole  that  very  little  light  could  enter. 
Inside  there  was  only  one  room.  Here  the  serf  and  his 
family  lived,  ate,  and  slept.  The  floor  w^as  of  earth  and 
seldom  dry,  the  beds  w^ere  piles  of  straw,  and  there  was 


i82      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

no  stove  —  only  an  open  fire  over  which  his  wife  cooked 
the  meals,  much  as  gypsies  do  now.  There  were  no 
lamps,  no  clocks,  no  books,  no  chairs  —  nothing  but 
some  rude  stools  and  perhaps  a  table.  Food  was  cut  up 
with  the  knife  which  the  serf  carried  in  his  belt,  and 

fingers  took 
the  place  of 
spoons  and 
forks. 

And  what 
=     did  the  serf 
-    and  his  fam- 
ily have   to 
eat  ?        Not 

1^%?^"'"*    '"'"'  "^     ^  much  but  a 

very  coarse 
black  bread, 

cheese,  a  little  meat,  and  beer  or  cider  for  drink.  They 
had  no  potatoes  and  very  few  vegetables  of  any  kind, 
and  no  tea  or  coffee  or  sugar.  The  only  sweetening  they 
had  was  honey,  when  they  had  the  good  luck  to  find  a 
bees'  nest  in  the  w^oods.  Of  course  they  had  no  pepper, 
or  spice  of  any  sort.  Even  salt  was  very  precious,  for  it 
was  all  obtained  by  allowing  the  water  to  evaporate  from 
pans  of  sea  water.  Moreover,  most  of  the  salt  that  they 
could  afford  to  buy  had  to  be  used  in  salting  down  meat 
for  winter  use.    It  was  impossible  to  have  fresh  meat  in 


,— *^ 


A  Barn  of  the  Thirteenth  Century 


COUNTRY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     183 

winter,  because  there  was  only  enough  fodder  to  sup- 
port the  cattle  that  were  needed  for  farming  purposes. 
All  the  rest  had  to  be  killed  before  winter  set  in. 

As  for  clothes,  few  serfs  had  more  than  one  garment, 
a  sort  of  sleeveless  coat  reaching  to  the  knees,  woven  of 
w^ool  and  belted  in  with  a  piece  of  leather  or  rope.  This 
garment  they  wore  day  and  night,  only  taking  it  off, 
probably,  when  it  was  so  worn  out  that  it  had  to  be  re- 
placed by  a  new  one.  As  for  bathing,  that  w^ould  have 
seemed  to  them  a  dangerous  proceeding. 

The  wretched  w^ay  in  which  these  poor  people  lived, 
the  dirt  and  dampness  and  filth  that  surrounded  them, 
and  the  food  they  had  to  cat  caused  them  to  suffer  from 
many  dreadful  diseases  such  as  we  scarcely  know  the 
names  of  in  these  days.  Men  had  also  much  less  regard 
for  human  life  at  that  time  than  they  have  now,  and  .a 
serf  had  very  few  rights  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  He  might 
be  robbed  or  even  murdered  for  his  few  poor  possessions, 
and  the  thief  easily  escape  punishment.  In  turn  if  he  tried 
to  escape  from  his  serfdom  and  was  captured,  he  might  be 
shut  up  in  a  loathsome  dungeon  or  fastened  by  his  legs 
and  arms  in  the  stocks.  If  not  captured,  he  might  take 
to  the  forests  for  refuge,  but  then  he  w^ould  be  counted 
an  outlaw  ^  whom  any  man  might  kill  without  fear  of  pun- 
ishment.    A  gallows  at  the  crossroads,  with  the  body  of 

1  Robin  Hood,  whose  adventures  in  Sherwood  Forest  are  so  famous,  was  an 
outlaw. 


1 84      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

some  thief  or  outlaw  hanging  from  it,  was  no  uncommon 
sight  in  those  times. 

This  Hfe  of  the  serf  was  the  hfe  led  by  more  than  half 
of  all  the  people  in  England  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
It  would  seem  to  us  an  existence  scarcely  to  be  borne, 
and  we  cannot  wonder  that,  as  the  centuries  went  by 
and  people  became  more  civilized,  the  serfs  found  it 
harder  and  harder  to  live  as  their  fathers  had  done,  and 
that  in  time  they  broke  loose  entirely  from  their  life  of 
slavery  and  made  themselves  freemen. 

Section  30.    Life  ix  the  Castles 

There  were  other  people  besides  serfs  and  farmers  who 
filled  the  humble  walks  of  life  in  England  in  those  days, 
—  friars,  monks,  townsmen,  and  tradesmen,  —  but  before 
we  talk  of  them  it  will  be  well  to  contrast  with  the  serf's 
life  that  of  another  class  of  Englishmen  who  also  lived 
in  the  country,  though  in  a  very  different  fashion  —  the 
life  of  the  knights  and  nobles. 

Castles.  We  already  know  somethinor  of  their  castles. 
In  spite  of  the  great  superiority  of  these  to  the  homes  of 
the  poor,  and  their  imposing  appearance,  with  their  mas- 
sive walls  and  keeps  commanding  the  whole  countryside, 
they  must  have  been,  for  most  of  the  year,  uncomfort- 
able, dreary  places  to  live  in.  The  tapestry  hangings  on 
the  walls  and  the  open  fire  in  the  middle  of  the  big  hall 
could  not  keep  out  all  the  cold  drafts,  and  the  small  rooms 


i85 


i86      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


A  Room  in  the  Keep  of  Craigmillar  Castle 


that  opened  off  the  hall,  and  were  not  heated  at  all,  must 
have  been  chilly  indeed  in  the  wintertime.  Even  summer 
warmth  could  scarcely  make   an  entrance  through  the 


COUNTRY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     187 

thick  walls  and  small  windows.  The  castle,  in  fact,  was 
not  built  to  be  a  comfortable  and  pleasant  place  to  live 
in,  but  as  a  place  of  protection  against  the  lord's  enemies. 
The  central  hall,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  main  room. 
Here    the    lord    and    his    family,    with   his    guests    and 


Ladies'  Costumes  in  the  Twelfth,  Thhiteexth,  and 
Fourteenth  Centuries 

retainers  and  servants,  ate  their  meals,  and  here  all  of 
them  slept  except  the  lord  and  lady  of  the  house.  The 
latter  usually  occupied  one  of  the  small  side  rooms. 
This  they  also  used  as  a  reception  room,  the  lady  often 
sitting  on  her  bed  to  receive  her  guests,  as  there  were 
few  chairs  in  those  days. 


i88     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

At  mealtime  long  boards  were  brought  into  the  big 
hall  and  laid  on  trestles,  to  serve  as  a  table.  The  nobility 
sat  at  one  end  of  the  table,  or  "  board,"  the  attendants  at 
the  other,  with  a  great  saltcellar  between,  to  mark  the 
dividing  line. 

Manners  and  amusements  of  the  nobles.  The  nobles  who 
sat  above  the  salt  and  the  others  who  sat  below,  all  alike 
ate  with  their  fingers,  for  the  notion  of  forks  had  not  yet 
entered  any  one's  head.  The  bones  were  thrown  under 
the  table  to  the  dogs.  Towels  and  basins  of  water  were 
passed  at  the  end  of  the  meal,  and  it  w^as  thought  a  piece 
of  rudeness  to  wipe  one's  fingers  on  the  tablecloth.  For 
plates  they  used  great  slices  of  bread,  eating  them  last 
when  they  were  well  soaked  with  gravy  or  giving  them 
to  the  serving  men. 

Here  are  some  rules  for  polite  behavior  at  table  from  an 

old  book  of  those  times,  called  the  "  Boke  of  Courtasye  " : 

Let  never  thy  cheek  be  made  too  great 
With  morsel  of  bread  that  thou  shalt  eat. 

Thou  shalt  not  laugh  nor  speak  a  thing 
While  thy  mouth  be  full  of  meat  or  drink. 

Other  rules  forbade  one  to  play  with  the  cat  or  dog  at 
the  table,  to  wipe  one's  eyes  on  the  tablecloth,  to  dip 
bread  or  meat  into  the  saltcellar,  or  to  pick  one's  teeth 
with  a  knife  or  stick. 

After  dinner,  when  the  table  had  been  taken  away,  the 
lords  and  ladies  gave  themselves  up  to  the  pleasure  of 


COUNTRY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     189 


the  minstrel's  songs  and  music.  The  minstrel  was  a 
wandering  player  who  made  his  living  by  going  from 
castle  to  castle,  singing  his  songs  to  the  accompaniment 
of  a  lute  or  a  harp  —  a  welcome  visitor  everywhere. 

The  principal  outdoor  amusements  of  the  nobles  were 
hunting  and  tournaments.  They  chased  the  deer  with 
hounds  In  the  forests  and  parks, 
and  hunted  w^olves  and  wild  boars. 
Hawking,  which  was  their  great 
delight,  was  carried  on  with  the 
aid  of  hawks,  or  falcons.  These 
birds  were  trained  to  chase  and 
attack  the  birds  that  were  being 
hunted.  The  knight  who  w^ent 
hawking  carried  his  falcon  on  his 
wrist,  fastened  by  a  chain.  Its  head 
was  covered  by  a  sort  of  hood, 
saw  his  game  —  a  wald  duck,  a  partridge,  or  perhaps 
a  heron  —  the  falcon  was  unhooded  and  released,  to 
swoop  down  upon  its  victim.  So  precious  were  falcons 
that  It  was  counted  a  serious  crime  to  steal  one,  and  a 
man  might  be  imprisoned  a  year  for  destroying  its  eggs. 

Besides  hunting  there  were  various  other  amusements. 
The  great  favorite  for  indoors  w^as  chess,  while  outside 
the  game  of  tennis  was  popular.  Even  the  most  distin- 
guished persons  were  not  above  enjoying  rough  jokes, 
for  a  description  in  one  of  the  old  chronicles  of  a  scene 


Gentleman  with  HxVwk 
When    the    hunter 


I90     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

in  an  abbey  orchard  tells  how  the  king  and  his  nobles 
amused  themselves  by  pelting  each  other  with  apples 
and  dirt,  and  squeezing  the  juice  of  unripe  grapes  into 
each  other's  eyes. 

The  English  people  of  those  times  had  a  great  fond- 
ness for  flowers,  as  they  have  to-day,  and  many  manor 
houses  had  gardens  w^iere  it  w^as  the  pleasant  custom  in 
summer  to  receive  one's  guests  and  to  walk  hand  in 
hand  —  or  flnger  in  flnger,  as  the  fashion  was  then  — 
down  the  flower-bordered  alleys,  the  ladies  gathering  the 
blossoms  to  make  garlands  and  chaplets  for  their  hair. 
An  old  song  praises 

The  merry  time  of  May 
When  ladies  strew  their  bowers 
With  red  roses  and  lily  flowers. 

The  tournament.  The  supreme  entertainment,  however, 
of  all  the  nobility  of  this  age  —  often  called  the  age  of 
chivalry  —  was  the  tournament.  In  Chapter  X  we  spoke 
of  the  training  that  a  boy  must  receive  before  he  could 
be  made  a  knight  —  how  he  must  first  serve  as  a  page 
in  some  noble's  court,  and,  as  he  grew  older,  act  as 
squire  to  his  lord  until,  having  proved  himself  worthy  of 
knighthood,  he  was  girded  with  his  sword  by  the  king 
or  some  older  knight. 

The  proving  himself  worthy  of  knighthood,  or  the 
''  winning  of  his  spurs,"  as  it  was  called,  would  natu- 
rally  have    taken    place    in    war,    but    as    the    continual 


COUNTRY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     191 


neighborhood  warfare  of  earher  times  gradually  decreased 
and  there  was  not  always  a  chance  to  fight,  the  knights 
invented  a  sort  of  play  war. 

This  playing  at  war  was 
called  the  tourney,  or  tourna- 
ment. It  was  a  sham  battle  in 
which  knights  fought  against 
one  another  for  the  pleasure 
and  glory  of  the  contest.  They 
rode  into  the  field  that  had 
been  set  off  for  the  tournament 
on  horseback  and  in  full  armor, 
lances  leveled  at  one  another, 
and  fought  until  one  side  was 
unhorsed.  Many  knights  and 
ladies  surveyed  the  battle  from 
a  gallery  overlooking  the  field, 
each  lady  wearing  the  colors  of 
the  knight  she  favored.  One 
lady  was  honored  above  the 
rest  by  the  title  of  "  Queen  of 
the  Tournament "  or  "  Queen 

of  Love  and  Beauty."  From  her  the  successful  knights 
received  their  guerdon,  or  prize.  Sometimes  it  was  a 
wreath  of  flowers,  sometimes  a  "  milk-white  falcon " 
or  "  three  fair  steeds,"  or  perhaps  gold  pieces  and 
jewels. 


A  KxiGHT  IX  Armor 


192      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Often  these  play  battles  had  serious  results.  Many 
stories  tell  of  knights  wounded  and  even  killed  in  tourna- 
ments ;  but  this  did  not  prevent  their  growing  more  and 
more  popular  among  the  knightly  class,  for  it  gave  the 
knight  an  opportunity  to  display  not  only  his  courage 
but  his  devotion  to  his  lady  —  in  short,  his  chivalry. 

Chivalry  of  the  Middle  Ages.  This  is  what  chivalry 
meant  to  a  knight  —  to  be  brave  in  war,  honorable  toward 
an  enemy,  courteous  to  all  women  and  ready  to  help  them 
in  distress,  and  to  give  to  some  one  lady  his  whole  love 
and  loyalty.  A  knight  was  the  most  perfect  ideal  of  a 
man  that  the  Middle  Ages  could  conceive.  But  bravery, 
faithful  service  to  his  lady,  courtesy  to  his  equals,  and 
devotion  to  the  Church  were  all  he  aimed  at.  To  those  be- 
neath him  in  rank,  such  as  the  peasant  and  the  merchant, 
his  behavior  was  far  from  ideal.  He  looked  upon  them  as 
another  set  of  beings,  created  only  to  serve  and  support 
him.  The  knight  despised  even  the  priest  and  the  monk 
because  they  did  not  fight,  for  fighting  was  the  serious 
business  of  his  life,  and  his  sword  he  held  dear  as  life 
itself.  A  dying  knight  thus  speaks  in  an  old  romance : 
"  Now  take  I  leave  of  chivalry,  which  I  have  much  loved 
and  honored.  Alas,  my  sword  !  What  wilt  thou  do  now  ? 
Thou  wilt  leave  thy  master ;  never  wilt  thou  have  another 
so  good !  " 


COUNTRY  PEOPLE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES     193 

Questions.  1.  How  was  a  serf  to  be  distinguished  from  a  slave  ? 
2.  Why  was  a  peasant  called  a  "villein"  in  the  Middle  Ages?  3.  Could 
there  have  been  use  for  much  money  on  a  thirteenth-century  manor  ? 
4.  Do  you  think  that  poor  people  now  are  worse  off  than  they  were  in 
England  six  or  seven  hundred  years  ago  ?  5.  Can  you  now  see  the  origin 
of  our  word  "  boarding  "  ?  6.  What  kind  of  a  person  would  you  regard 
as  chivalrous  ?  7.  How  did  the  lives  of  the  rich  in  the  Middle  Ages 
differ  from  those  of  the  rich  of  to-day  ?  8.  Would  you  rather  have  lived 
in  the  thirteenth  century  than  in  the  twentieth  ? 

References.  Cheynev.  Readings  in  F.nglish  History,  pp.  212-215 
(a  manor);  pp.  215-217  (a  villein's  duties).  Robinson.  Readings  in 
European  Histor}-,  Vol.  I,  pp.  399-405  (account  of  two  English 
manors);  pp.  405-406  (freeing  of  a  serf);  pp.  435-437  (troubadour 
songs).    Pyle.    Robin  Hood. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

The  power  and  wealth  of  the  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages.    Church  officers. 

The  cathedral.    Monasteries  and  the  occupations  of  the  monks.    St.  Francis 

and  his  order  of  mendicant  friars.    The  Dominicans 

Section  31.    The  Power  of  the  Church 

However  much  may  be  said  of  the  might  of  kings  and 
nobles  in  the  Middle  Ages,  with  their  strong  castles  and 
their  knights  and  men  at  arms,  the  Church  and  its  officials 
were  in  many  ways  even  more  powerful  and  influential 
than  they.  In  Chapter  VI  ^  we  learned  about  the  begin- 
nings of  the  great  organization  called  the  Church,  and 
we  shall  now  learn  something  of  what  it  had  grown  to 
be  during  the  thousand  or  more  years  since  that  time. 

Why  the  Church  was  so  powerful.  It  is  not  hard  to  see 
why  the  Church  was  so  powerful.  The  union  of  Church 
and  State  was  so  close  that  disloyalty  to  one  was  looked 
upon  as  disloyalty  to  the  other.  Kings  and  other  rulers 
were  usually  quite  willing  to  arrest  those  accused  of  dis- 
loyalty to  the  Church  and  its  teachings.  If  the  Church 
court,  after  trying  a  man,  declared  him  to  be  a  heretic, — 
one  who  positively  refused  to  accept  the  teachings  of  the 

1  See  pp.  93-95. 
194 


THE  CHURCH   IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


195 


Church,  —  he  was  turned  over  to  the  government  officials 
to  be  punished  according  to  law,  for  the  State  considered 
heresy  as  bad  as  treason  —  a  form  of  treason,  in  fact,  and 
therefore  a  capital  crime. 

Then  the  Church  was  very  rich.  Rich 
men,  rulers,  and  nobles  frequently  gave 
manors,  serfs,  buildings,  and  various 
other  valuable  things  as  a  pious  tribute. 
The  Church  had  a  right  also  to  impose 
a  special  tax  for  its  support  (called  the 
tithe),  and  contributions  were  made 
when  there  was  a  baptism,  a  marriage, 
or  a  burial  in  a  family. 

The  churchmen  owed  much  of  their 
power,  also,  to  the  fact  that  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  Middle  Ages 
they  alone  knew  anything  about  books. 
The  priest  was  often  the  only  one  in 
the  village  who  could  read.  Kings 
sometimes  could  not  read  or  write. 
Indeed,  if  a  man  could  read,  it  was 
taken  for  granted  that  he  was  a  churchman  of  some  sort. 

Church  organization.  The  Pope,  as  has  been  said,  was 
the  head  of  this  mighty  organization  of  the  Church.  Next 
to  him  came  the  archbishops.  There  were  two  of  these 
in  England.  They  had  the  supervision  of  Church  matters 
in  England.    They  were  also  great  feudal  lords,  holding 


Archbishop's  Di^ess 


196      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

vast  estates  from  the  king  and  receiving  immense  incomes 
from  the  manors  under  their  control.  If  they  wished,  they 
could  raise  from  their  vassals  an  army  equal  to  any  in 
the  country. 

Next  to  the  archbishops  came  the  other  bishops.  Many 
important  towns  were  the  seats  of  bishops.  A  town  in 
those  days  was  not  called  a  city  unless  it  was  the  residence 
of  a  bishop  and  was  dignified  by  one  of  the  beautiful  and 
impressive  churches  called  cathedrals. 

A  bishop  had  general  charge  of  all  the  churches  that 
lay  within  a  certain  stated  distance  from  the  city  in 
which  he  lived,  as  well  as  of  the  neighboring  monas- 
teries. They  made  up  his  "  diocese."  If  a  man  wanted 
to  become  a  priest,  only  a  bishop  could  make  him  one ; 
and  no  one  but  a  bishop  could  anoint  a  king  when  he  was 
crowned.  Often  the  king's  best  councilors  and  officers 
were  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of  his  realm. 

As  symbols  of  his  power  and  his  sacred  character  the 
bishop  wore  on  his  head  the  miter,  —  a  curious  high  cap 
with  a  deep  cleft,  —  and  in  his  hand  he  carried  a  staff 
called  the  crozier.  A  bishop  dressed  in  his  robes,  wearing 
his  miter  and  carrying  his  crozier,  was  a  very  stately  and 
dignified  figure  indeed. 

This  then  was  the  great  English  Church  system  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  First,  the  Pope  at  Rome  in  control  of  all 
archbishops,  bishops,  and  priests  throughout  Christen- 
dom—  in  France  and  Germany  and  Italy  as  well  as  in 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES        197 

England ;  next  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury  and  York 
at  the  head  of  the  Enghsh  bishops,  just  as  archbishops  in 
other  Christian  nations  of  Europe  were  at  the  head  of  the 
bishops  in  their  countries ;  then  the  bishops,  presiding  in 
the  cathedral  towns  and  overseeing  all  the  priests  in  their 
dioceses ;  lastly,  the  priests,  in  charge  of  their  small 
churches  and  the  people  of  their  parishes. 

Section   32.    Cathedrals 

The  churclies  of  the  archbishops  and  bishops  were 
called  cathedral  churches,  from  the  name  of  the  bishop's 
throne-like  chair,  the  cathedra.  These  bishops'  churches 
were  wonderfully  impressive  and  beautiful  edifices.  In  all 
the  years  that  have  passed  since  the  thirteenth  century, 
of  which  we  are  now  speaking,  men  have  never  succeeded 
in  erecting  any  buildings  that  equal  them  in  their  union 
of  dignity,  splendor,  and  beauty. 

When  a  cathedral  was  to  be  built  the  most  famous 
architects  and  builders,  the  finest  carvers  in  wood  and 
stone,  the  most  expert  painters,  and  the  cleverest  makers 
of  stained  glass  were  summoned  from  France,  where  the 
greatest  skill  was  to  be  found,  to  take  charge  of  the  work. 
And  not  only  that  —  all  the  people  of  the  town  had  a 
share  in  it  also.  Rich  and  poor  alike  helped  to  build 
and  ornament  it  with  their  own  hands,  or  helped  to  pay 
for  its  erection  with  their  money ;  and  all  alike  had  the 
deepest  pride  and  interest  in  it. 


198      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

So  it  has  come  about  that  to-day  all  over  England, 
France,  Italy,  and  Germany  these  wonderful  old  churches 
are  to  be  seen.    And  they  are  still  the  pride  and  glory  of 


Canterbury  Cathedral,  England 

their  towns,  although  for  more  than  five  centuries  they 
have  been  lifting  their  beautiful  towers  and  spires  to 
the  sky. 

Cathedral  architecture.  A  cathedral  floor  was  in  the 
form  of  a  cross.  The  long  arm  of  the  cross  ran  cast  and 
west  and  was  called  the  nave ;  the  shorter  part,  crossing 
it,  formed  the  transept ;  and  separated  from  these  two 
parts  by  pillars  and  arches  ran  one  or  more  side  aisles. 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES        199 


The  east  end  of  the  nave  was  called  the  choir.  This  was 
the  most  sacred  part  of  the  cathedral.  Here  were  the  altar 
and  the  sacred  relics,  and  here  High  Mass  was  celebrated. 
Beneath  the  cathe- 
dral was  a  sort  of 
basement,  called  the 
crypt,  which  was 
used  as  a  place  of 
burial  for  distin- 
guished persons. 

The  walls  of  a 
cathedral  were  em- 
bellished with  bril- 
liant paintings  of 
scenes  from  the 
Bible  and  from  the 
lives  of  the  saints. 
The  great  windows 
were  divided  into 
smaller  spaces  by 
fine  stone  tracery 
and  filled  with  pieces 
of  beautifully  colored  glass  fitted  together  into  pictures. 
The  light  that  came  through  the  crimson,  blue,  and  violet 
panes  cast  a  rich  glow  over  the  stone  carving  on  pillar  and 
arch  and  glorified  the  whole  cathedral.  The  stained  glass 
of  these  old  cathedrals  has  never  since  been  equaled. 


The  Choir  of  Wells  Cathedral, 
England 


200     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

No  cathedral  was  finished  in  three  or  four  years,  as 
most  of  our  fine  churches  and  other  buildings  are  now. 
Many  of  them  were  a  hundred  years  or  more  in  building, 
and  some  were  never  entirely  finished.  The  bishops  who 
presided  over  them  were  always  changing  and  rebuilding 
and  enlarging  them. 

To  the  different  styles  of  building  that  were  invented, 
one  after  another,  we  give  different  names.  The  first 
style  in  which  much  building  was  done  in  England  was 
the  Norman,  which  is  somewhat  like  that  of  the  old  build- 
ings that  the  Romans  had  erected  throughout  France. 
The  pillars  in  churches  of  this  style  are  round,  massive, 
and  heavy,  and  the  arches  are  rounded,  giving  an  impres- 
sion of  dignity  and  grandeur. 

From  the  Norman  style  gradually  developed  the  great- 
est glory  of  the  age  of  cathedral  building,  the  Gothic 
style.  The  arches  of  windows  and  aisles  became  pointed 
and  high,  the  pillars  tall  and  slender,  and  the  towers  more 
aspiring.  The  pillars  were  carved  with  fiowers  and  leaves, 
the  window  tracery  grew  to  look  like  lacework  in  stone, 
the  doorways  were  marvels  of  richness.  Everywhere,  in- 
side and  out  of  the  cathedral,  wherever  architects  could 
use  it,  there  was  carving.  Even  far  up  on  the  roof  and 
the  spires  the  most  lovely  stonework  was  to  be  found. 

Sometimes,  among  the  delicate  carved  flowers  and 
vines,  we  find  the  queer  figures  and  faces  called  gargoyles, 
that  the  Gothic  architect  thought  added  somehow  to  the 


Gloucester  Cathedral  and  Cloisters,  England 


202      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


perfection  of  his  work.  He  put  them  within  and  without 
the  cathedral,  and  just  at  the  moment  when  one  is  gazing 
enraptured  at  the  soaring  spires  the  eye  may  fall  on  one 
of  these  grotesque,  grinning  figures  of  man  or  beast 
perched   on   the   stone  gutter  of  the   roof  above. 

The  parish  church.  Far 
less  imposing  than  the  bish- 
ops and  their  cathedrals 
were  the  priests  and  their 
parish  churches.  From  the 
church  shown  in  the  illus- 
tration on  page  151  it  will 
be  seen  how  insignificant 
these  buildings  were,  com- 
pared with  the  cathedrals, 
though  very  picturesque, 
nevertheless,  to  our  eyes.  To  the  poor  serfs  and  vil- 
lagers their  parish  church  no  doubt  seemed  a  wonder- 
fully fine  edifice.  Here  services  were  held,  the  lord  of 
the  manor  and  his  family  in  the  front,  and  behind  them 
the  tenants  and  serfs  of  the  estates. 

Section  ^2>'    Monasteries 
Besides  parish    churches   and   cathedrals    there    were 
other  important  religious  buildings,  namely,  the  monas- 
teries, or  abbeys.^    We  have  already  heard  something  of 

1  Monasteries  were  usually  called  abbeys  in  England,  because  the  larger  ones 
were  presided  over  by  abbots. 


Gargoyles 


THE  CHURCH   IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES        203 

them,  but  we  must  consider  them  a  little  more  closely, 
for  they  were  the  home,  the  school,  and  the  church  com- 
bined of  a  vast  number  of  people  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
Whenever  men  and  women  grew  sick  of  the  fighting  and 
turmoil  of  the  times,  or  desired  to  devote  their  lives  to 


A  School  Scene  in  the  Twelfth  Century 


religion  or  study,  they  retired  from  the  world.  The  men 
went  to  live  in  a  monastery,  the  women  in  a  convent. 
There  they  were  pretty  sure  to  find  quiet  and  plenty  of 
occupation.  The  gentler  and  more  pious  among  them 
found  constant  opportunity  for  devoting  themselves  to 
God's  service  by  attending  Mass,  taking  part  in  the  fre- 
quent services  of  the  monastery  church,  and  caring  for 


204     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  poor  and  sick,  while  for  the  more  active  there  was 
much  work  to  be  done,  both  indoors  and  out. 

Monastery  buildings.  The  buildings  of  a  monastery,  if 
it  was  a  large  one,  were  numerous,  for  a  complete  monas- 
tery establishment  carried  on  many  industries ;  but  of 
all  the  buildings  connected  with  it,  the  church  was  by 
far  the  most  important. 

Next  to  the  church  the  most  frequented  parts  of  an 
abbey  were  the  cloisters  and  the  quadrangle.  The  quad- 
rangle was  the  square  of  ground  which  the  monastery 
buildings  inclosed.  Around  its  four  sides  and  adjoining 
these  buildings  ran  a  covered  walk  called  the  cloisters. 
The  roof  of  the  cloister  walk  in  the  finer  monasteries 
was  often  supported  by  beautifully  carved  pillars.  The 
floor  was  paved  with  big  flagstones,  and  along  the  walls 
were  benches  and  seats  for  the  comfort  of  the  monks, 
who  spent  much  of  their  time  there. 

The  rest  of  the  quadrangle  was  either  a  plot  of  green 
grass,  or  was  planted  with  flowers  and  shrubs,  with  per- 
haps a  plashing  fountain  in  the  middle.  Here,  on  the 
sunny  sid^,  the  monks  might  often  be  seen  reading,  or 
teaching  a  group  of  boys  from  the  neighborhood  to 
read  or  to  chant  the  Church  service. 

Besides  the  various  other  buildings  in  which  the 
monks  ate  and  slept  and  carried  on  their  occupations, 
there  was  one  called  the  scriptorium,  where  an  important 
part  of  the  work  done  by  the  monks  was  performed. 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


205 


The  scriptorium,  as  its  name  implies  (derived  from  the 
Latin  scribo,  "  to  write  "),  was  a  writing  room.  The  printing 
press  had  not  yet  been  invented,  and  all  books  and  docu- 
ments had  to  be  copied  by  hand.  The  only  persons  who 
were  sufficient! v  educated  to  do  this,  and  who  had  the 


A  Monastery  Kitchkx,  AlARiKXiiUKG,  Germany 

time  for  it,  were  the  monks.  Besides  the  continual  copy- 
ing of  books,  some  of  the  monasteries  kept  a  sort  of 
chronicle,  running  on  year  after  year,  of  the  chief  events 
of  their  time.  Then,  as  the  monasteries  owned  great 
estates,  with  numbers  of  peasants  and  tenants  renting 
various  plots  of  land,  large  and  small,  there  were  many 
deeds  and  business  contracts  to  be  drawn  up  and  ac- 
counts to  be  kept. 


2o6     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Many  of  the  books  copied  by  the  monks  of  this  age 
are  very  beautiful.  The  black  letters,  in  the  style  called 
Gothic,  are  wonderfully  clear  and  distinct.  On  the  mar- 
gins of  the  pages  there  are  often  charming  borders  of 
flowers  and  birds,  vines  and  leaves  and   little  animals, 


From  a  Copley  Print.    Copyright,  1899,  Curtis  and  Cameron 

The  Manuscript  Book 

(After  the  painting  by  John  W.  Alexander) 

painted  in  scarlet  and  blue  and  purple  and  green  on 
a  background  of  gold.  Often,  too,  there  are  pictures, 
painted  most  exquisitely  in  the  same  brilliant  colors. 
Sometimes  if  there  were  no  bright  pictures,  there  would 
at  least  be  gold  or  gay-colored  initial  letters  at  the  be- 
ginning of  a  page.  The  book  was  bound  in  heavy  leather 
backs,  stamped  in  beautiful  designs  in  gold  leaf,  and 
fastened   with   massive   clasps. 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES        207 

The  life  of  a  monk.  The  life  of  a  monk  was,  as  a  rule, 
a  very  active  one.  He  was  obliged  to  rise  at  two  or  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning  for  the  service  called  vigils,  and 
after  Mass  and  breakfast  to  attend  to  his  appointed  duties 


r»?t^ 


€r'. 


^ 


^ 


fj^iu^o^ljmaiuw  tuto  itm»mt)im 

iwiJOfufttiottt  to  fti>m4  fliif  pc 
OHittt  of  luff-  tt»m4i  f>aj>tt|e8  of 
Win  ui  n  fUJoft  of;tyimu.feia>uc 

i|frtiu>(  (icf^n^^ltootMrer  pan  f 
rdjfilonue  afttriae.-lof  %OHif  Uw 


^to^cf  jyf5[iaunep/itlrtt«ner»to  pe 

j'f  ft  af  ^aaift-  fmi  t^motef  ruo 

ft'Sm  to  pe  Cff  Sep?  mm  Wfttti 
,^fd)(T;jk».*iw>  ictwscciEptoijcta. 

<?oatol)t  Mtfloe^wiftj^s  of  tnai«^ 
ituD  auo&uf  t  itcttts  foiOitmi.^ 
feuitffttilif (%»'<!«&  i?Cftt>tif(S|»e 
jicutipfi  au^lf  c^;iatnpscf  mie 

toot  malnugt  tJrttj0^»diiii0)u 

fttioott  m  pf  fasotfie  t^egoti  m 

t»  jjc  ft^tmgt^ge  feitt;t  \m).  an6 

I  pet  u?w«¥rt)mota)i$  tcchPMgt. 

116  tn  j>t<i>t«i«i3^f  of  ^erntBi 


tan&u  Ml  dti  iMirtfttii*  ibtirfifc.**!!* 


Illuminated  Manuscript 

(From  the  Wycliffe  Bible  in  the  British  Museum,  London) 


about  the  monastery.  The  rules  of  some  orders  required 
attendance  in  church  as  often  as  seven  times  every  day. 
The  duties  were  various.  Some  of  the  monks  might  be 
found  superintending  the  serfs  and  farmers  or  working  in 
the  fields  themselves ;  some  were  busy  looking  after  the 


2o8     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


g; 


kitchen  and  the  supply  of  food ;  some  did  gardenin 
some  kept  the  scriptorium  suppHed  with  ink,  pens,  and 
parchment ;  others,  as  we  have  seen,  were  occupied  with 

copying  or  writing,  or 
teaching  children  from 
the  neighborhood  to  read 
and  write.  Still  others 
would  be  detailed  to  look 
after  the  guests  that  were 
certain  to  be  enjoying  the 
hospitality  of  the  mon- 
astery, for  a  monastery 
was  almost  the  only  sort 
of  inn  there  was  in  those 
times,  and  the  monks 
were  bound  to  entertain 
all  who  came  to  their 
doors. 

In  the  richer  abbeys 
the  lives  of  the  monks 
w^ere  often  more  luxurious 
than  St.  Benedict  would 
have  wished.  The  rules  that  he  had  laid  down  more  than 
six  hundred  years  before  enjoined  a  very  plain  and  simple 
way  of  living.^  But  in  later  times,  when  monasteries  had 
grown   more  wealthy,  the   monks  found   it  harder  and 

1  See  p.  loo. 


Courtesy  of  Metlji 

Nuns  in  Choir 


&  Company 


THE  CHURCH   IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES         209 

harder  to  live  in  this  way.  So  there  was  need  of  some 
one  to  teach  again  a  simple  way  of  life  and  lessons  of 
service  to  the  world  outside  the  monastery  precincts. 
Such  a  teacher  was   St.  Francis  of  Assisi. 

Section  34.    Thp:   Friars 

St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  born  in 
Italy  toward  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  was  not  at 
all  a  saint  for  the  first  twenty  years  of  his  life.  He  was  a 
gay,  romantic,  rich  young  man,  who  thought  very  little 
about  religious  matters.  Wlien  he  was  twenty,  however, 
he  fell  ill  and  was  sick  for  a  long  time.  After  he  had  re- 
covered he  found  that  he  no  longer  cared  for  the  pleasures 
of  his  former  life.  All  his  thoughts  were  turned  toward 
helping  the  sick  and  wretched  about  him.  He  gave  away 
all  he  had  to  the  needy,  and  in  the  ardor  of  his  devotion 
made  himself  wash  the  sores  of  the  poor  lepers  in  the 
village.  He  w^as  not  at  all  troubled  when  his  father,  in 
anger  and  disgust,  disinherited  him.  He  cheerfully  gave 
up  his  fine  clothes  and  jewels,  and  putting  on  the  cast- 
off  garments  of  a  gardener,  went  on  doing  good  in  what- 
ever way  he  could. 

One  day  when  he  was  in  church  the  priest  read  from 
the  Bible  the  words,  "  And  as  ye  go,  preach,  saying :  '  The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand.'  Get  you  no  gold  nor 
silver,  nor  brass  in  your  purses,  no  wallet  for  your  journey, 
neither  two  coats,  nor  shoes,  nor  staff."    To  Francis  these 


2IO     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

words  seemed  spoken  directly  to  himself,  and  without 
more  ado  he  set  about  doing  their  bidding.  He  threw 
away  his  shoes,  his  wallet,  and  his  staff,  and  with  nothing 
but  a  single  garment,  girt  about  with  a  piece  of  cord,  he 
set  forth  to  preach  the  sweet  and  comforting  words  of  the 
gospel  to  the  destitute  and  wretched  of  his  country.  He 
took  no  thought  even  of  food  for  himself,  but  depended 
on  the  charity  of  others  for  it.  And  his  faith  was  justified  ; 
what  was  necessary  was  always  provided  for  him. 

Many  gave  up  their  homes  and  their  possessions  and' 
joined  him  in  his  wandering  life.  In  1210  he  persuaded 
Pope  Innocent  III  to  give  the  sanction  of  the  Church  to 
his  preaching  and  to  that  of  his  followers.  They  called 
themselvesyr/^rj-  (that  is,  brethren),  and  later  they  came  to 
be  called  mendicant  friars  because  for  their  living  they  de- 
pended upon  what  they  could  beg.  It  was  the  rule  of  the 
order  that  they  must  own  no  property  whatever.  Their 
mission  was  to  help  and  cheer  the  poorest,  lowest,  and 
most  degraded,  the  outcasts  of  society.  So  everywhere 
throughout  Italy  went  St.  Francis  and  his  followers,  bring- 
ing joy  and  consolation  to  the  sorrowful  and  destitute. 

Dominican  friars.  At  about  the  same  time  that  Francis 
began  his  wandering  life  of  preaching  and  helping  the 
poor,  a  young  Spanish  churchman,  named  Dominic,  also 
set  out  to  travel,  and  preach  as  he  went.  His  followers 
were  called  preaching  friars,  ^ 

1  They  also  were  called  mendicant  friars. 


2  12      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

It  was  not  long  before  the  Dominican  and  Franciscan 
friars  found  their  way  over  into  England.  Here  they  were 
received  with  open  arms  and  their  preaching  listened  to 
with  joy  and  enthusiasm.  The  Franciscans  wore  gray 
gowms  and  the  Dominicans  black  ones,  and  the  Gray 
Friars  and  the  Black  Friars,  as  they  were  called,  were 
seen  on  all  the  highways  of  England,  exhorting  and  com- 
forting the  people  after  their  different  fashions.  Many 
joined  them,  and  many  others,  who  did  not  wish  to  give 
up  their  whole  lives  to  this  work,  still  helped  them  in 
every  way  they  could. 

Questions,  l.  What  is  meant  by  the  clergy  ?  2.  Do  you  know  whether 
there  are  any  cathedrals  in  this  country  ?  3.  Have  you  ever  seen  a  Gothic 
window  ?  4.  What  English  king  was  reigning  when  Pope  Innocent  III 
gave  Francis  of  Assisi  permission  to  establish  the  order  of  mendicant 
friars  ?  5.  Which  picture  in  this  book  illustrates  the  Norman  style  of 
architecture  ?  6.  Which  English  cathedrals  are  shown  in  this  book,  and 
what  others  can  you  find  out  about  ? 

References.  Cheyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  195-200 
(an  English  monastery);  pp.  166-167  (a  dinner  with  the  monks  at 
Canterbury).  Robinson.  Readings  in  European  History,  pp.  364-368 
(how  people  of  the  Middle  Ages  felt  toward  heretics);  pp.  378-379 
(a  visit  to  a  convent);  pp.  387-395  (St.  Francis  of  Assisi).  The  Little 
Flowers  of  St.  Francis. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

TOWNS  AND  BUSINESS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

How  towns  grew  up.    Their  appearance.    Merchants.   Merchant  guilds.    Trade 
guilds.    Markets  and  fairs.    Importance  of  towns 

Section  35.    The  Towns 

We  liave  already  spoken  of  towns  in  P^ngland,  but 
towns  were  very  different  six  hundred  years  ago  from 
what  they  are  now.  At  the  time  about  which  we  are 
studying,  in  the  reign  of  King  John's  successor,  Henry  III, 
there  were  only  about  two  hundred  towns,  or  boroughs, 
as  they  were  called,  in  England,  and  the  largest  of  these, 
London,  had  a  population  of  less  than  ten  thousand. 

Growth  and  appearance  of  towns  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
Towns  had  been  very  slow  in  growing  up  in  England. 
Sometimes  they  grew  up  around  a  castle.  Sometimes 
they  grew  up  on  the  coast  near  a  good  harbor  where 
trading  ships  from  other  countries  w^ere  likely  to  put  in, 
and  there  was  a  chance  for  English  merchants  to  carry 
on  trade  with  the  sailors.  Sometimes  they  sprang  up  near 
one  of  the  important  monasteries,  for  among  the  pilgrims 
it  attracted  there  would  be  many  to  buy  the  bread  and 
ale  and   cheese,  the  shoes  and  cloaks,  the   knives   and 

swords,  that  the  English  workmen  could  make. 

213 


2  14     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


A  medieval  town  in  England  looked  very  different 
indeed  fi'om  any  towns  that  we  have  in  our  country.  In 
the  first  place  it  was  almost  always  small,  and  the  houses 
were  crowded  very  close  together.    The  streets  were  so 

narrow  that  the  build- 
ings almost  met  over- 
head, and  housewives 
could  easily  gossip 
out  of  an  upper  win- 
dow with  neighbors 
across  the  way.  There 
were  no  sidewalks. 
Every  one  walked  in 
the  crooked,  ill-paved 
streets.  Very  often 
the  whole  town  was 
shut  in  by  a  high  wall 
in  which  were  several 
big  gates  that  were 
closed  at  a  certain  time 
in  the  evening.  After 
that  time  no  one  could  come  in  or  go  out  without  special 
permission.  In  Chester  to-day  one  may  take  a  pleasant 
walk  along  a  ledge  on  the  inside  of  the  old  wall  that 
still  surrounds  the  town. 

The  houses  of  the  townspeople  were  plain  affairs, 
generally  built  of  wood  and  plaster,  and  there  was  little 


A  Gate  in  the  Old  Town  Wall, 
Southampton,  England 


TOWNS  AND  BUSINESS  IN  MIDDLE  AGES      215 

attempt  to  beautify  them.  The  citizens  were  more  inter- 
ested in  erecting  a  fine  hall  in  which  to  hold  their  meet- 
ings, and,  if  their  town  was  a  cathedral  city,  in  building 
the  most  beautiful  cathedral  possible.  The  old  halls  in 
London  and  elsewhere  in  England  are  buildings  that  any 
town  to-day  might  be  proud  of. 

Town  merchants.  When  we  picture  a  merchant  of  the 
Middle  Ages  we  must  not  fancy  him  behind  a  counter 
selling  silks  and  muslins,  hats,  or  shoes,  or  stationery, 
or  other  goods  which  he  has  ordered  from  as  many  dif- 
ferent factories.  Still  less  should  we  think  of  him  as  run- 
ning a  department  store,  where  many  clerks  sell  things 
brought  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  establishment 
of  a  merchant  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  more  like  the 
small  shoemaker's  shop  we  sometimes  see  to-day,  where 
the  shoemaker,  sitting  on  his  bench  in  the  front  room  of 
his  house,  makes  his  shoes  before  our  eyes  and  displays 
them  for  sale  in  the  window.  For  the  medieval  merchant 
not  only  sold  goods  but  also  made  them.  He  was  both 
a  manufacturer  and  a  merchant. 

His  house  was  a  plain  one,  as  has  been  said,  crowded 
with  others  in  a  narrow  street.  Within  the  house  were 
very  few  rooms,  and  these  poorly  lighted.  The  window 
on  the  street  and  the  open  door  lighted  the  shop.  In 
the  window  were  shown  whatever  wares  he  made  and 
had  for  sale.  If  he  was  a  weaver  his  rolls  of  cloth  were 
to  be  seen  there,  and  he   and  his  apprentices  did  the 


2i6      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

weaving  in  the  same  room,  or,  if  he  were  prosperous,  in 
another  larger  room  back  of  the  Httle  front  one.  The 
tailors  also  lived  in  this  way,  and  the  glovers,  the  gold- 
smiths, the  jewelers,  the  shoemakers,  the  brewers,  the 
bakers,  and  all  the  other  artisans  and  tradesmen. 

The  names  of  these  trades  came  in  time  to  be  used  as 
the  surnames  of  those  engaged  in  them,  and  have  been 
kept  as  family  names  to  our  own  day.  Such  names  as 
Glover,  Weaver,  Smith,  Carpenter,  Taylor,  are  some  of 
them,  and  it  is  easy  to  think  of  many  similar  ones. 

Section  36.   The  Guilds 

Guild  rules.  At  first  there  was  one  big  union,  or  guild, 
to  which  all  tradesmen  belonged,  whatever  their  business. 
It  was  called  the  merchant  guild.  No  citizen  in  the 
town  could  make  or  sell  any  kind  of  goods  unless  he 
belonged  to  it.  No  man  could  come  into  the  town  from 
other  towns  or  countries  and  sell  or  make  goods  of  any 
sort  without  special  permission  from  the  guild.  All  the 
members  were  bound  to  stand  by  one  another  like 
brothers.  If  one  of  them  lost  his  money,  his  fellow  guilds- 
men  must  assist  him  from  their  own  means.  When  a 
member  died  all  the  others  must  attend  the  service  in 
the  church  and  must  bear  the  body  to  the. place  of  burial. 
If  a  member's  wife  and  children  should  be  in  want  after 
his  death,  the  guild  had  to  see  that  they  were  cared  for. 
Much  of  this  reminds  us  of  the  modern  trade-unions. 


TOWNS  AND  BUSINESS  IN  MIDDLE  AGES     217 

The  members  of  the  merchant  guild  in  every  town 
erected  as  splendid  a  hall  as  they  could  afford,  in  which 
to  hold  their  meetings.  Here  they  met  to  draw  up  their 
rules  and  to  impose  fines  on  any  who  should  have 
broken  them.  Here  too  they  held  great  banquets  at 
least  once  a  year. 

In  later  years  the  old  guildhalls  were  sometimes  used 
as  town  halls,  where  the  town  councils  and  town  officials 
held  their  meetings.  They  were  handsome,  dignified 
buildings,  with  fine  oak-raftered  and  oak-paneled  rooms, 
often  splendidly  carved. 

Trade,  or  craft,  guilds.  In  time  the  great  merchant  guild 
grew  less  and  less  important,  because  different  tradesmen 
began  forming  smaller  guilds  for  each  craft.  The  wool 
merchants  were  united  into  the  guild  of  wool  merchants, 
the  tailors  into  the  tailors'  guild,  the  carpenters  into  the 
carpenters'  guild,  the  goldsmiths  into  the  goldsmiths' 
guild,  and  so  on,  until  there  were  as  many  guilds  in 
every  English  town  as  there  were  industries. 

All  the  members  of  a  particular  guild  were  likely 
to  be  found  living  in  the  same  quarter  of  the  town.  In 
one  quarter  would  be  found  shoemakers,  in  another  car- 
penters and  joiners,  in  another  makers  of  swords  and 
workers  in  iron.  In  each  guild  was  the  same  feeling  of 
brotherhood  that  had  been  in  the  big  general  guild  of 
merchants,  and  much  the  same  rules  were  laid  down  for 
the  members. 


2i8      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Whatever  goods  the  members  of  each  guild  made  had 
to  be  made  according  to  strict  rules.  The  baker's  bread 
had  to  be  of  a  certain  weight,  the  brewer's  ale  must  be 
of  a  certain  strength,  the  cloth  maker  must  manufacture 
his  cloth  just  so  wide  and  so  heavy,  or  the  inspectors  ap- 
pointed by  every  guild  to  test,  weigh,  and  measure  all  the 
goods  made  by  its  members  would  impose  a  heavy  fine. 

There  were  other  rules,  too,  binding  members  of  craft 
guilds.  They  were  forbidden  to  work  after  nightfall, 
because  it  was  thought  that  no  man  could  work  so  neatly 
by  night  as  by  day;  and  also  he  could  more  easily  prac- 
tice deception  by  night.  A  metal  worker,  for  example, 
might  introduce  into  his  work  at  night  bad  iron  or  copper, 
and  metals  that  had  been  cracked,  without  being  found 
out  by  the  inspectors.  Then,  too,  there  was  danger  of 
fire  from  the  forges  of  the  iron  makers,  if  they  were  made 
to  blaze  up  and  send  out  their  sparks  after  the  people  of 
the  neighborhood  were  all  in  bed  and  asleep.  Other  rules 
forbade  the  members  of  the  guild  to  speak  rudely  to  one 
another,  or  to  call  names,  or  to  come  before  the  guild  com- 
pany with  the  cap  or  hood  on  the  head,  or  barefoot.  The 
breaking  of  any  of  these  rules  was  punished  by  a  fine. 

So  the  members  of  a  craft  guild,  living  in  the  same 
street,  working  at  the  same  business,  obeying  the  same 
rules,  meeting  together  in  their  guildhall  for  business  or 
pleasure,  and  helping  one  another  in  time  of  trouble  or 
need,  came  to  feel  much  like  brothers. 


TOWNS  AND  BUSINESS  IN   MIDDLE  AGES      219 

Section  37.   Markets  and  Fairs 

Once  or  twice  a  week  a  market  was  hekl,  sometimes 
inside  the  town  and  sometimes  outside.  The  favorite 
place  for  it  w^as  the  churchyard  and  the  favorite  day  was 
Sunday,  until  church  officials  put  a  stop  to  this  practice. 
But  it  was  so  convenient  for  people  who  were  busy  every 
day  during  the  w^eek  to  meet  in  the  churchyard  on  Sun- 
day, when  they  came  out  of  church,  and  dispose  of  the 
produce  they  had  brought  with  them,  that  it  was  a  long 
time  before  the  custom  was  given  up. 

English  fairs.  There  were  many  luxuries,  however, 
that  the  English  lords  and  ladies  felt  they  must  have, 
which  English  guilds  did  not  make  and  which  were  not 
sold  either  in  their  shops  or  in  the  country  markets. 
Where  then  did  they  buy  the  silks  and  rich  furs,  the 
elegantly  wTought  bracelets  and  necklaces  and  rings,  and 
the  fine  scarlet  cloth  that  they  wore,  and  that  were 
brought  into  England  from  Italy,  France,  Belgium,  and 
Germany.^  It  was  at  the  famous  English  fairs  that  for- 
eign merchants  had  a  chance  to  sell  these  things  to 
the  nobility,  and  to  buy  in  return  the  English  goods  that 
they  wanted  to  take  back  to  their  own  countries. 

Once  in  so  often,  usually  every  year,  one  of  these  great 
fairs  was  held  near  every  large  town  in  England.  As  the 
time  for  its  opening  drew  near,  the  owner  of  the  land  on 
which  it  was  held  began  to  get  the  place  ready.    Long 


220      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

lines  of  wooden  booths  or  tents  were  erected  so  as  to 
form  streets,  and  a  wooden  fence  put  up  around  the 
whole  place  to  keep  out  all  except  those  who  paid  the 
entrance  fee  at  the  gates.  As  different  traders  arrived, 
either  English  merchants,  or  foreign  ones  from  Germany, 
France,  or  Italy,  they  were  given  certain  booths  in  the 
fair  grounds.  All  the  merchants  of  the  same  country,  or 
those  selling  the  same  goods,  occupied  the  same  quarter, 
so  that  it  might  be  easy  for  buyers  to  find  w4iat  they 
wanted.  Every  one  who  came  in,  either  to  buy  or  to 
sell,  had  to  pay  an  admission  fee,  which  went  to  the  lord 
or  abbot  who  owned  the  land  on  which  the  fair  was  held. 
To  make  trade  better,  all  the  shops  in  the  town  near  by 
were  closed  and  all  town  business  stopped  until  the  fair 
was  over.  Most  fairs  lasted  about  two  wrecks,  during 
which  time  the  town  tradesmen  could  move  out  to  the 
fair  grounds  if  they  wished,  and  do  business  there. 

Besides  the  regular  merchants  in  the  fair  there  were 
great  numbers  of  peddlers,  beggars,  fakirs,  jugglers,  and 
clowns,  ready  to  sell  their  cheap  goods  and  show  off  their 
tricks  to  any  one  wiio  would  pay  them ;  and  everywhere 
among  the  buyers  and  sellers  went  the  inspectors,  test- 
ing the  weights  and  measures  and  examining  the  quality 
of  the  goods,  for  everything  that  was  sold  must  be  of  a 
certain  standard. 

Different  fairs  were  famous  for  different  things.  If  a  man 
wanted  to  buy  furs,  or  tar,  or  fish  he  went  to  Stourbridge 


TOWNS  AND  BUSINESS  IN  MIDDLE  AGES     221 

fair,  for  it  was  here  that  foreign  merchants  from  the 
north  of  Europe  came  with  these  goods,  taking  back 
with  them  across  the  sea  tlie  wool  and  heavy  ck)th  that 
England  was  noted  for.  At  Winchester  fair  merchants 
from  Italy  displayed  their  goods,  silks,  spices,  ivory  and 
gems,  fine  cloths,  oil,  and  wine  —  luxuries  that  were  not 
produced  in  England.  Otlier  fairs  were  noted  for  being 
good  horse  fairs,  or  leather  fairs,  or  cloth  fairs. 

Importance  of  towns.  Gradually,  however,  as  towns 
increased  in  importance  and  size  and  grew  more  willing  to 
open  their  gates  to  foreign  trade,  the  number  of  fairs  de- 
creased, and  the  towns  became  the  centers  of  business  and 
trade,  as  well  as  of  schools  and  arts  and  industries.  If  it 
had  not  been  for  the  rise  of  towns  where  men  could  work 
together,  meet  foreigners,  see  books,  pictures,  and  beau- 
tiful buildings,  and  get  new  ideas,  we  should  doubtless  still 
be  living  somewhat  as  people  did  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

Questions.  1.  What  makes  a  town  grow  up  nowadays  ?  2.  What  is 
the  population  of  the  largest  town  you  know  of  ?  3.  Do  you  think  that 
there  could  have  been  any  factories  like  ours  in  the  Middle  Ages  ? 
4.  Can  you  see  any  difference  between  a  modern  trade-union  and  a  med- 
ieval guild  ?  5.  Do  we  have  fairs  now  ?  6.  Can  you  give  other  proper 
names  derived  from  trades  besides  those  mentioned  in  this  chapter? 
7.  Do  we  have  public  inspectors  of  weights  and  measures?  8.  What 
pleasures  did  the  people  of  the  Middle  Ages  have  that  we  do  not  have  ? 

References.  Cheyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  p.  208  (a  town 
charter);  pp.  209-211  (guild  rules).  Robinson.  Readings  in  European 
History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  406-409  (town  charters)  ;   409-412  (guild  rules). 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES 

Marco  Polo.    Kublai  Khan,  the  ruler  of  Cathay.    Japan  and  Java.    Henry  the 

Navigator.    Diaz  and  the  rounding  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.    Columbus  and 

the  discovery  of  America.    John  Cabot's  voyage  to  North  America.    Vasco  da 

Gama.    How  Portugal  gained  at  the  expense  of  Venice  and  Genoa 

Section  38.    Marco  Polo 

In  Chapter  X  wc  read  of  the  Crusaders  and  of  what 
they  learned  in  their  journeys  to  Palestine.  But  they  never 
went  any  distance  in  from  the  coast,  and  almost  nothing 
was  known  of  the  great  countries  that  lay  on  the  other 
side  of  Asia  until  about  1300,  when  a  book  appeared 
in  Italy  describing  in  a  most  interesting  way  the  adven- 
tures of  a  certain  Marco  Polo,  who  had  spent  a  long 
time  in  China  and  seen  a  great  deal  of  the  countries 
of  eastern   Asia. 

Marco  Polo  and  the  Khan.  The  father  and  uncle  of 
Marco  Polo  were  Venetian  merchants,  of  noble  family, 
who  traded  in  silks,  gems,  and  spices  from  the  East. 
They  often  made  long  journeys  into  the  interior  of  Asia, 
and  once  they  took  young  Marco  with  them  and  traveled 
far  across  Asia  into  the  great  realm  of  China  —  or  Cathay, 
as  it  was  then  called. 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES 


The  ruler  of  Cathay  at  this  time  was  Kublai,  called  by 
his  subjects  Khan,  "  the  great  lord  of  lords."  Kublai 
Khan  was  immensely  pleased  wdth  the  Venetians.  They 
were  the  first  Europeans  he  had  ever  seen,  and  he  listened 
with  delight  to  all  they  had  to  tell  of  cities  and  men  in 
their  own  country. 

For  seventeen  years 
Marco  Polo  remained 
with  his  father  and 
uncle  at  the  court  of 
Kublai  Khan.  He 
adopted  the  Chinese 
dress  and  manners 
and  learned  to  speak 
the  four  languages 
used  in  the  Khan's 
empire.  He  became 
so  great  a  favorite 
and  proved  himself  so 
capable  that  he  was  made  governor  of  a  large  Chinese 
city,  and  a  number  of  times  he  went  to  countries  far  and 
near,  on  business  of  the  Khan,  visiting  regions  utterly 
unknown  to  Europeans.  Wherever  he  went  he  took 
note  of  the  appearance  of  the  people  and  of  their  man- 
ners and  ways  of  living,  and  upon  his  return  related 
it  all  to  the  great  Khan,  who  particularly  delighted  in 
hearing  things  of  that  sort. 


Marco  Polo 


224     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

At  last  the  Polos,  who  had  become  very  rich  during 
their  stay  in  Cathay,  began  to  long  to  see  their  Venetian 
home  again.    It  was  with  great  difficulty,  however,  that 


The  Return  of  the  Polos 


they  persuaded  the  unwilling  Khan  to  let  them  go ;  but 
when  finally  he  consented,  he  sent  them  away  in  royal 
fashion,  providing  them  with  ships  and  crews  to  carry 
them  and  their  treasures  the  whole  distance  from  Cathay 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  225 

around  to  Persia,  where  they  were  to  leave  the  ships  and 
make  the  rest  of  the  trip  overland.  It  was  a  long  journey, 
for  more  than  two  years  had  passed  by  the  time  they 
reached  Venice. 

Here,  on  account  of  their  long  absence,  their  curiously 
fashioned  garments,  and  their  sunburned,  weather-beaten 
faces,  they  had  much  clifHculty  in  making  themselves 
known  to  their  friends,  who  could  not  believe  that  these 
strange-looking  persons  were  the  long-absent  Polos.  It  was 
only  after  showing  the  heaps  of  rubies,  sapphires,  emeralds, 
and  diamonds  which  they  had  brought  from  Cathay,  sewed 
up  for  safety  in  the  seams  of  their  clothes,  that  the  Vene- 
tians would  believe  the  marvelous  stories  they  told,  and 
receive  them  with  the  honors  due  the  Polo  family. 

Marco  Polo's  book.  A  few  years  later  when  Marco  Polo 
was  fighting  for  the  Venetian  republic  against  Genoa,  he 
was  taken  captive  and  imprisoned  in  the  latter  city.  Here 
he  became  acquainted  with  another  Italian  prisoner,  who 
was  so  deeply  interested  in  all  that  Marco  had  to  tell  of 
the  wonders  of  his  travels  in  the  East  that  he  begged  to 
be  allowed  to  write  them  down. 

In  the  book  he  wrote  is  a  long  account  of  the  great  Khan 
and  his  vast  empire.  The  number  of  flourishing  cities  and 
towns  in  Cathay,  the  excellence  of  the  roads,  the  good 
government  prevailing  everywhere,  the  splendor  of  the 
Khan's  parks  and  palaces,  as  w^ell  as  his  stores  of  gold 
and  precious  stones,  are  all  described. 


226      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

He  wrote  of  Japan,  also,  and  said  that  the  quantity  of 
gold  they  had  was  endless.  They  had  pearls  in  abundance, 
too,  of  rose  color,  fine,  big,  and  round,  and  they  had 
quantities  of  other  precious  stones   besides. 

The  island  of  Java,  he  wrote,  was  one  of  surpassing 
wealth,  and  produced  black  pepper,  nutmegs,  cloves,  spike- 
nard, and  all  other  kinds  of  spices.  India  and  the  island 
of  Ceylon,  too,  were  described  as  rich  in  pearls,  rubies, 
and  other  precious  jewels,  and  in  all  kinds  of  spices. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  this  account  of  Marco  Polo's  travels 
must  have  interested  everybody  who  read  it.  The  descrip- 
tion of  the  Spice  Islands  and  of  the  wonderful  wealth 
of  Japan  especially  aroused  enthusiasm  for  discovering  a 
shorter  and  easier  way  to  these  marvelous  countries. 

Section  39.    Henry  the  Navigator 

About  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  Marco  Polo's 
book  was  written,  a  Portuguese  prince,  Henry  by  name, 
became  so  interested  in  reading  about  the  discoveries  of 
the  past  and  in  planning  new  ones  that  he  gave  up  the 
gay  life  at  the  royal  court  of  Lisbon  and  built  himself  a 
home  overlooking  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  where  he  might 
study  and  make  his  plans  undisturbed.  He  built  houses, 
also,  in  which  his  sailors  and  shipbuilders  might  live,  and 
an  observatory  from  which  he  could  study  astronomy. 
He  paid  skillful  navigators  to  instruct  his  men  in  the  art 
of  building  the  strongest  ships  and  of  sailing  them,  and 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  227 

before  many  years  had  passed  he  had  won  for  himself 
the  name  of  Henry  the  Navigator. 

Prince  Henry's  efforts  to  find  a  sea  route  to  India.    His 

greatest  desire  was  to  find  a  route  to  India  by  sea  around 
Africa.  There  were  three  reasons  why  he  was  so  desirous 
of  making  this  discovery :  he  wanted  to  learn  more  of  the 
world  and  know  for  certain  what  lay  beyond  Africa;  he 
wished  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  Christianity  by  con^ 
verting  the  inhabitants  of  new  lands ;  and,  most  of  all,  he 
desired  to  increase  his  own  and  his  country's  wealth  and 
fame  by  the  jewels  and  spices  he  was  sure  he  would  find. 

None  of  the  many  expeditions  he  sent  out  succeeded 
in  getting  even  halfway  down  the  long  African  coast,  and 
men  laughed  at  him,  and  blamed  him  for  what  they 
thought  a  terrible  waste  of  money.  But  he  refused  to 
give  up  his  plans.  Nor,  indeed,  were  his  ventures  un- 
profitable, for  every  ship  that  was  sent  out  to  skirt  the 
coast  of  Africa  brought  back  further  knowledge  of  the 
country,  and  although  he  did  not  live  to  see  the  longed- 
for  route  discovered,  his  mariners,  before  his  death,  had 
gone  as  far  south  as  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  and  taken 
possession  of  them  for  Portugal. 

Diaz  rounds  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Prince  Henry's 
perseverance  and  success  inspired  his  countrymen  to 
keep  on  trying  to  get  around  the  great  continent  of 
Africa.  When  we  look  at  the  map  and  see  the  huge 
expanse  of  open  sea  that  stretches  from  Portugal  to  the 


228      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  we  must  wonder  at  the  boldness  of 
the  men  who  first  made  the  voyage ;  and  we  wonder  the 
more  when  we  remember  how  small  were  their  sailing 
ships  and  how  little  they  were  able  to  withstand  the 
might  and  fury  of   the  ocean. 

Yet  in  spite  of  these  drawbacks  the  cape  was  finally 
rounded,  and  the  first  to  do  it  was  a  Portuguese  navigator 
named  Diaz,  in  the  year  1487.  His  sailors  refused  to  go 
farther  up  the  coast,  so  he  had  to  return  to  Lisbon. 
When  he  arrived  there  and  told  of  his  voyage,  the  king 
of  Portugal  felt  that  there  was  now  good  reason  to  hope 
that  a  way  to  India  would  soon  be  found,  and  so  he  said 
the  southern  point  of  Africa  should  be  called  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope. 

But  although  Diaz  had  succeeded  in  getting  around 
the  southernmost  point  of  Africa,  the  eastern  route  by 
sea  to  India  had  not  yet  been  found.  That  discovery 
was  left  for  another  Portuguese  mariner,  named  Vasco  da 
Gama.  And  before  Vasco  da  Gama  made  that  discovery 
a  far  greater  man  than  he  had  made  a  more  wonderful 
one.    This  man  was  Christopher  Columbus. 

Section  40.    Columbus  and  the  Discovery  of  America 

Life  of  Columbus  before  his  voyage.  We  know  very 
little  about  the  early  life  of  Columbus.  We  are  not  even 
certain  when  or  where  he  was  born.  But  from  all  that 
can  be  learned  it  seems  most  probable  that  he  was  born 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  229 

in  the  town  of  Genoa  about  the  year  1445.  In  a  letter 
to  the  king  and  queen  of  Spain  he  says  that  he  went  to 
sea  when  he  was  only  fourteen,  and  that  from  that  time 
on  he  continued  to  live  a  seafaring  life.  When  he  was 
not  at  sea  he  was  busy  making  maps  and  globes. 

He  loved  to  talk  with  mariners  of  every  nation  — 
Spanish,  English,  Portuguese,  and  the  rest  —  about  their 
voyages;  and  what  they  told  him,  and  what  he  read, 
made  him  believe  that  the  earth  must  be  round,  and 
that  he  could  therefore  reach  Japan  and  the  Indies  by 
sailing  west  as  w^cll  as  by  sailing  east. 

Burning  with  enthusiasm  for  this  great  project,  he 
tried  to  interest  the  king  of  Portugal  in  it,  for  the  Portu- 
guese were  great  explorers  in  those  days.  But  they  were 
so  busy  with  expeditions  along  the  coast  of  Africa  that 
they  could  spare  neither  men  nor  money  for  a  venture 
so  visionary  as  that  of  Columbus  seemed.  After  many 
anxious  years  spent  in  trying  to  persuade  the  king  of 
Portugal,  he  went  into  Spain  to  try  his  fortune  with 
King  Ferdinand  and  Queen  Isabella. 

According  to  a  description  given  of  Columbus  at  this 
time,  he  must  have  been  a  very  striking  figure.  He  was 
tall,  with  a  powerful  frame  and  dignified  presence.  His 
complexion  was  fair  with  a  ruddy  tinge,  his  eyes  a  bright 
gray-blue,  and  his  hair  thick  and  wavy  and  already  turn- 
ing gray.  His  manners  were  courteous  and  gentle  and 
his  conversation  delightful. 


230      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

He  had  little  success,  at  his  first  meeting  with  the  king 
and  queen  of  Spain,  in  persuading  them  that  the  earth 
was  a  sphere  and  that  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  reach- 
ing India  by  sailing  west.  Many  people  even  thought 
him  a  little  crazy  from  long  brooding  over  the  matter. 
One  of  the  learned  men  of  Spain  w^ho  heard  him  talk, 
said  that  if  the  earth  were  really  round  they  would  have 
to  sail  up  a  kind  of  mountain  from  Spain.  This  you  could 
not  do,  he  said,  even  with  the  fairest  wind,  and  you  could 
never  get  back. 

For  eight  years  Columbus  talked  and  planned  and 
waited  and  hoped,  trying  all  the  time  to  convince  the 
Spanish  court  of  the  truth  of  his  belief.  At  last,  although 
the  king  was  not  convinced,  Queen  Isabella  was,  and 
so  thoroughly  that  she  declared  she  would  sell  her  own 
jewels  to  help  Colum.bus  get  money  and  ships  for  the 
voyage,  if  it  could  not  be  done  in  any  other  way.  So  the 
ships  were  found.  But  it  was  no  easy  matter,  even  then, 
to  find  sailors  who  were  willing  to  undertake  a  voyage 
on  the  great  "  sea  of  darkness,"  as  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
was  then  called  —  a  sea  that,  so  far  as  any  one  knew, 
no  man  had  ever  crossed. 

Columbus's  first  voyage.  On  the  third  of  August,  1492, 
Columbus  finally  set  sail.  He  made  his  way  first  over 
the  well-known  route  to  the  Canary  Islands,  but  from 
there  sailed  out  into  unknown  seas.  For  a  month  the 
little  vessels  struggled  through  the  ocean  waves.    The 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  231 


anxious,  frightened  sailors  often  became  discouraged 
and  mutinous,  and  once  threatened  to  cast  Columbus 
into  the  sea  and  return  to  Spain;  but  he  always  suc- 
ceeded in  subduing  them,  and  persisted  on  his  voyage, 
until  at  last,  on  the  twelfth  of  October,  in  the  same 
year,  he  sighted  the  longed- 
for  land.  With  thanksgiv- 
ing and  rejoicing  he  went 
ashore  and  took  posses- 
sion of  it  in  the  name 
of  Spain,  and  supposing 
that  it  and  the  other  green 
and  flowery  islands  he  dis- 
covered were  a  part  of 
India,  he  called  the  natives 
whom  he  found  there  In- 
dians, We  suspect  the 
island  on  which  he  first 
landed  to  have  been  San 
Salvador,  one  of  the  Ba- 
hama Islands,  southeast  of  the  United  States.    Later  he 

g^  discovex^a^awiBJBtePf*^^^^^ 

On  his  return  from  this  voyage  Columbus  was  re- 
ceived by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  with  the  greatest  in- 
terest and  favor,  and  all  that  he  had  to  tell  was  eagerly 
listened  to.  Every  one  was  impatient  to  hear  and  see 
the  great   explorer  and   much  was   done  in   his   honor. 


Departure  of  Columbus 


232     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Plans  were  immediately  made  for  another  expedition. 
There  was  no  trouble  in  raising  funds  and  securing 
sailors  this  time,  for  all  were  anxious  to  take  part  in  an 
adventure  that  they  thought  would  bring  them  untold 
riches. 

Other  voyages  of  Columbus.  Columbus  made  three  other 
voyages  after  his  first  one,  exploring  the  coast  of  South 
America  as  far  as  the  Orinoco  River,  but  he  failed  to 
find  any  stores  of  gold  and  silver  with  which  to  enrich 
the  Spanish  sovereigns.  They  lost  all  interest  in  him, 
therefore,  and  so  forgot  and  neglected  him  that  toward 
the  end  of  his  life  he  wrote  them  this  sad  letter: 

"  I  was  twenty-eight  when  I  came  into  your  High- 
nesses' service  and  now  I  have  not  a  hair  upon  me  that 
is  not  gray.  Such  is  my  fate  that  the  twenty  years  of 
service  through  which  I  have  passed  with  so  much  toil 
and  danger  have  profited  me  nothing,  and  at  this  very 
day  I  do  not  possess  a  roof  in  Spain  that  I  can  call  my 
own.  If  I  wish  to  eat  or  sleep,  I  have  nowhere  to  go  but 
to  the  inn  or  tavern,  and  must  sometimes  lack  where- 
with to  pay  the  bill." 

Columbus's  death,  too,  was  at  first  unnoticed  and  un- 
mourned  by  the  Spanish.  Yet  so  fast  did  the  fame  of 
his  achievement  grow  that  King  Ferdinand  himself  was 
forced  to  erect  a  monument  to  him,  while  we  of  to-day 
reckon  him  among  the  heroes  of  the  world,  and  espe- 
cially of  our  own  country. 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  233 

We  may  be  led  to  think,  when  we  read  how  hard  it  was 
for  Columbus  to  convince  the  king  and  queen  of  Spain 
that  the  earth  was  round,  that  this  was  the  first  time  such 
a  thing  had  been  thought  of.  But  this  would  be  a  mis- 
take. Wise  men  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  knew 
that  the  earth  could  not  be  the  flat  surface  that  it  seemed 
to  be.  All  through  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  known  to  edu- 
cated persons  that  the  earth  was  a  sphere,  but  Columbus 
was  the  first  to  make  practical  use  of  this  knowledge  by 
trying  to  find  a  western  route  to  India. 

As  we  know,  he  did  not  succeed  in  reaching  India  or 
the  Spice  Islands,  as  he  had  set  out  to  do;  but  the  thing 
that  he  accomplished,  the  discovery  of  a  new  continent, 
was  vastly  more  important  and  led  to  wonderful  results  in 
the  next  two  centuries.  Other  discoveries  immediately 
followed  his,  and  for  the  next  two  hundred  years  mariners 
of  Portugal,  Spain,  and  Italy,  of  England,  P>ance,  and 
Holland,  found  plenty  of  adventure  in  exploring  the 
New  World  to  which  Columbus  had  led  the  way. 

Section  41.    How  John  Cabot  sailed  from   England 
TO  North  America 

English  discovery  of  Labrador.  England,  also,  had  a 
share  in  some  of  the  earliest  discoveries.  Down  in  the 
southwestern  corner  of  the  realm  was  the  flourishing  sea- 
port town  of  Bristol.  Many  a  bold  and  venturesome  sea 
captain  had  his  home  there  and  made  it  the  starting  place 


234      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


for  his  voyages.  Of  all  those  who  set  sail  from  its  harbor 
none  was  so  daring  a  mariner  as  one  who  had  come  there 
from  Venice  and  settled  in  the  town  with  his  sons.  John 
Cabot  was  his  name,  a  wonderfully  clever  and  enterprising 

man  from  all  accounts. 
One  writer  of  the  time 
says  that  although  Bristol 
was  the  starting  point  for 
all  English  voyages  of 
discovery,  and  its  people 
knew  all  that  was  going 
on  in  the  way  of  adven- 
tures in  other  countries 
and  were  themselves  al- 
ways sending  out  vessels 
to  explore  far-away  waters, 
yet  the  moving  spirit,  the 
man  who  encouraged  them 
all,  was  the  Venetian, 
John    Cabot. 

When  Cabot  had  made 
his  plans,  he  carried  his 
maps  up  to  London  and  succeeded  in  convincing  the 
king  that  beyond  the  sea  lay  other  lands  which  might  be 
secured  for  the  honor  and  glory  of  England.  So  the  king 
gave  him  money  and  permission  to  sail  to  all  places,  lands, 
and  seas,  of  east,  west,  and  north,  and  to  take  possession 


A  Venetian  Galley 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  235 

of  all  the  heathen  lands  he  might  discover ;  and  in  the 
king's  accounts  for  the  year  1497  we  find  that  Cabot  was 
paid  about  a  hundred  dollars  for  discovering  what  w^as 
called  the."  new  Isle." 

This  "  new  Isle  "  was  probably  a  point  on  the  coast  of 
Labrador,  but  Cabot  and  the  rest  of  the  world  had  no 
doubt  that  it  was  a  part  of  India.  Cabot  described  the 
land  as  fertile,  and  the  seas  as  being  so  full  of  fish  that 
they  could  be  gathered  up  in  baskets.  The  king  was 
delighted  and  promised  to  give  him  ships  for  a  voyage  to 
Japan,  which  Cabot  believed  to  be  farther  along  the  coast, 
and  to  .provide  him  also  with  a  number  of  criminals  to 
take  over  as  colonists  to  the  new  country. 

Cabot's  second  voyage  also  failed  to  discover  Japan,  and 
though  both  voyages  had  the  far  more  important  result 
of  adding  a  large  part  of  North  America  to  the  British 
possessions,  it  was  at  the  time  a  national  disappointment 
that  a  short  way  to  the  spices  and  treasures  of  India  and 
Japan  had  not  been  discovered  by  England.^ 

Why  people  of  the  Middle  Ages  valued  spices.  It  is  some- 
what puzzling  to  us  of  this  day  that  the  people  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  valued  spices  so  very  highly  and  paid  such  high 
prices  to  secure  them.    But  w^e  do  know  that  they  were 

1  Traders  had  long  been  bringing  spices  from  the  East  to  Europe,  partly  by 
land  and  partly  by  sea  ;  but  the  Turks,  who  had  become  so  powerful  that  in  1453 
they  captured  Constantinople,  had  made  this  route  almost  impossible,  for  they 
took  possession  of  the  roads  and  robbed  the  merchants  of  their  goods.  So  another 
route  had  to  be  found. 


236     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

used  universally.  Old  manor  houses  often  had,  among  the 
buildings  on  the  estate,  one  that  was  called  the  spicery. 
Here,  probably,  meats  were  spiced,  just  as  old  farmhouses 
in  our  country  used  to  have  "  smokehouses "  in  which 
meat  was  cured  for  the  year's  use.  The  spicing  of  meats 
helped  to  preserve  them,  a  thing  much  to  be  desired  in 
an  age  when  people  had  not  learned  how  to  store  away 
ice  for  keeping  food  in  warm  weather;  and  the  spicing 
helped  also  to  disguise  the  taste  of  meat  that  had  lost  its 
freshness.  Spices  served,  too,  as  stimulants  in  a  time 
when  there  was  no  tea,  coffee,  or  tobacco  to  serve  that 
purpose.  The  chief  relic  w^e  have  to-day  of  their  spicy 
mixtures  is  our  mince  pie,  which  is  quite  in  the  style 
of  the  cooking  of  those  times. 

Section  42.    Vasco  da  Gama 

Vasco  dS  Gama  searches  for  a  sea  route  to  India.  Vasco 
da  Gama,  of  whom  mention  has  been  made  earlier  in  this 
chapter,  was  a  Portuguese  gentleman  of  noble  family.  He 
had  proved  himself  a  brave  soldier  during  a  war  between 
Portugal  and  Spain,  and  a  daring  sailor  in  some  voyages 
that  he  had  made  along  the  African  coast.  When  the 
king  of  Portugal  looked  about  for  some  one  to  take  charge 
of  a  new  expedition  in  search  of  the  eastern  passage  to 
India,  he  decided  that  there  was  no  one  better  fitted  than 
this  nobleman.  Accordingly,  in  July  of  the  year  1497,  five 
years  after  Columbus's  first  voyage,  Vasco  da  Gama  set 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  237 

sail  from  Portugal  with  four  stout  ships,  well  manned 
with  sailors  and  officers,  well  stocked  with  provisions  for 
the  long  voyage,  and  having  on  board  as  pilots  men  who 
had  made  the  voyage  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
with   Diaz. 

The  ships  sailed  down  the  coast  of  Africa,  past  the 
Cape  Verde  Islands,  across  the  great  Gulf  of  Guinea,  and 
on  southward  and  east,  until  at  last  they  sighted  the 
mountain  peaks  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  which  seemed 
to  the  sailors  to  touch  the  skies.  So  great  was  their  relief 
when  they  rounded  the  cape  that  they  felt  they  were  then 
well  on  tlieir  way  to  India,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
the  rest  of  the  way  was  quite  unknown  to  them. 

They  landed  in  several  places  as  they  made  the  long 
voyage  up  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  and  at  one  of  them, 
Melinde,  just  north  of  Zanzibar,  they  were  most  kindly 
treated.  The  king  of  the  country  sent  out  to  their  ships 
gifts  of  cloves,  ginger,  nutmeg,  and  pepper,  and  invited 
them  to  an  interview.  He  received  them  in  extraordinary 
state,  dressed  in  damask  and  green  satin,  seated  on  two 
bronze  chairs,  and  sheltered  by  a  crimson  umbrella. 
When  they  told  him  who  they  w^ere  and  that  they  w^ere 
seeking  to  reach  India  by  sea,  he  assured  them  that  such 
a  thing  was  quite  possible,  as  he  himself  traded  with  the 
East  Indian  merchants.  He  even  provided  them  with  a 
good  pilot  to  show  them  the  way  across  the  ocean.  So 
Da  Gama  and  his  Portuguese  ships,  with  the  good  pilot 


238     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

on  board,  set  sail  across  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  before 
many  weeks  landed  in  Calicut,  on  the  longed-for  shores 
of  India. 

Da  Gama  himself  went  on  shore  to  have  a  meeting 
with  the  king  of  the  country,  taking  with  him  presents 
of  cloth,  coral,  sugar,  oil,  and  honey.  The  king's  officer 
refused  to  let  them  be  shown  to  the  king,  and  laughed 
at  them,  saying  that  the  poorest  merchant  in  India  would 
have  given  more  valuable  gifts.  Nothing  but  gold  was 
a  fitting  present  for  the  king,  he  declared.  Upon  this 
Da  Gama  grew  sad  ;  he  said  that  he  had  brought  no  gold 
and  that  these  gifts  were  not  from  the  king  of  Portugal 
but  from  himself.  The  officer  still  refused  him  permission 
to  bestow  them,  but  allowed  him  an  interview  with  the 
Indian  king. 

At  this  interview  Da  Gama  asked  that  friendly  trade 
might  be  established  between  India  and  Portugal.  The 
king  asked  what  sort  of  merchandise  the  Portuguese  had 
brought  with  them  to  trade  in.  Da  Gama  said  corn,  cloth, 
iron,  and  bronze,  and  that  they  had  not  brought  very 
much,  as  they  were  on  a  voyage  of  discovery.  Their 
country  of  Portugal,  however,  he  said,  was  a  very  rich 
one.  The  king  seemed  satisfied  and  allowed  Da  Gama 
to  load  his  ships  with  spices  and  Indian  goods  in  return 
for  the  merchandise  he  had  brought. 

This  friendly  relation  came  to  an  end  almost  immedi- 
ately, however.    The  merchants  of  the  country,  who  had 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  239 

for  years  been  sending  spices  and  silks  to  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea  and  selling  them  to  Venetian  and  Genoese 
traders,  were  afraid  that  the  Portuguese  traders,  if  they 
established  themselves  in  India,  would  take  away  all  their 
business.  They  were  so  successful  in  persuading  their 
king  of  this  danger  that  he  had  Da  Gama  seized  and 
imprisoned,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  the  Portuguese 
captain  at  last  escaped  to  his  ships. 

After  some  further  exploring  of  the  coast  the  Portu- 
guese set  sail  on  the  homeward  voyage  across  the  Indian 
Ocean,  toward  Africa.  They  stopped  again  at  Melinde, 
where  they  were  hospitably  treated  as  before,  and  then, 
after  a  long,  hard  voyage  around  the  cape,  anchored  once 
more  in  the  harbor  of  Lisbon  in  September,  1499. 

Results  of  Vasco  da  Gama's  discovery.  The  king  of 
Portugal  was  delighted  with  the  results  of  the  expedition. 
He  wrote  of  it  as  follows  to  P'erdinand  and  Isabella  of 
Spain,  whose  daughter  he  had  married : 

"  Your  Highnesses  already  know  that  we  had  ordered 
Vasco  da  Gama,  a  nobleman  of  our  household,  with  four 
vessels,  to  make  discoveries  by  sea ;  and  as  the  principal 
motive  of  this  enterprise  has  been  the  service  of  God, 
our  Lord,  and  our  own  advantage,  it  pleased  him  in  his 
mercy  to  speed  them  on  their  route.  They  did  search  and 
discover  India.  They  entered  and  navigated  the  seas, 
finding  large  cities,  large  edifices,  and  rivers,  and  great 
populations,  among  whom  is  carried  on  all  the  trade  in 


240     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

spices  and  precious  stones.  Da  Gama  and  his  men  have 
brought  back  a  quantity  of  these,  including  cinnamon, 
cloves,  ginger,  nutmeg,  and  pepper,  as  well  as  other 
kinds  of  spices,  together  with  the  boughs  and  leaves 
of  the  same ;  also  many  fine  gems  of  all  sorts,  such  as 
rubies  and  others." 

Portuguese  trading  stations  were  established  in  India, 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  Indian  merchants,  and 
before  long  a  thriving  trade  grew  up,  for  Portuguese 
merchants  could  now  supply  Europe,  with  spices  much 
more  easily  and  cheaply  than  the  Genoese  and  Venetians 
had  done.  These  Eastern  goods,  in  earlier  days,  had  to 
be  taken  over  a  long  and  difficult  route  before  they  could 
reach  European  markets.  By  this  route  the  spices  w^ere 
first  brought  from  the  Spice  Islands  of  the  Indian 
Archipelago  to  Calicut.  P^rom  there  they  were  taken  to 
Jiddah,  a  seaport  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Red  Sea. 
There  small  vessels  took  them  up  through  the  Red  Sea 
to  a  town  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Egypt.  From  there 
they  were  carried  on  the  backs  of  camels  to  Cairo,  a  ten 
days'  journey.  At  Cairo  they  were  embarked  on  the  river 
Nile,  and  after  a  journey  of  two  days  by  boat  and  one 
day  on  camel's  back,  they  reached  Alexandria,  on  the 
Mediterranean  Sea.  To  this  city  came  Venetian  and 
Genoese  galleys,  on  which  the  bales  of  spices  were  taken 
to  the  chief  cities  of  Italy,  France,  Germany,  England, 
and  Portugal.    Now,  after  Vasco  da  Gama's  voyage  of 


THE  FIRST  GREAT  DISCOVERIES  24 1 

discovery,  the  Portuguese  vessels  could  carry  the  mer- 
chandise by  one  trip  straight  from  India  to  Portugal,  and 
from  there  to  the  rest  of  Europe.  Portugal  grew  wealthy 
and  important  with  this  great  increase  of  trade.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  commerce  of  Venice  and  Genoa,  the 
great  trading  cities  of   Italy,  was  now  entirely  ruined. 

Questions.  1.  About  how  far  is  it  from  Venice  to  Peking,  China  ? 
2.  Can  one  go  by  rail  now  from  Venice  to  Peking  ?  3.  Do  you  judge 
that  Marco  Polo  probably  exaggerated  somewhat  the  wonders  he  had 
seen  ?  4.  What  reasons  can  you  give  for  thinking  that  the  earth  is  a 
globe  ?  5.  Plow  far  had  C'olumbus  to  sail  from  Spain  to  the  \\'est  Indies  ? 
6.  How  far  is  it  from  Bristol  to  Labrador  ?  7.  How  far  from  Cuba  to 
Japan  ?  8.  How  long  does  it  now  take  a  fast  steamer  to  go  from  New 
Vork  to  Liverpool  ?  9.  How  large  is  Portugal  compared  with  England  ? 
10.  How  far  is  it  from  Lisbon  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  ?  11.  Which 
seems  to  you  the  more  daring  explorer,  Diaz  or  Vasco  da  Gama  ? 

References.  Old  South  Leaflets,  Vol.  II,  No.  32  (Marco  Polo's 
account  of  Japan  and  Java) ;  No.  29  (the  discovery  of  America)  ;  No.  30 
(Strabo's  introduction  to  geography)  ;  No.  ;^;^  (letter  of  Columbus) ; 
No.  37  (voyage  of  the  Cabots) ;  Vol.  HI,  No.  71  (Columbus's  letter  to 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella);  Vol.  V,  No.  102  (Columbus's  account  of 
Cuba)  ;  p.  301  (Cabot's  discovery  of  America).  Lawler.  The  Story  of 
Columbus  and  Magellan,  p.  14.  Bates  and  Coman.  English  History 
Told  by  English  Poets,  p.  235   (The  First  Voyage  of  the  Cabots). 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  AROUND  THE  WORLD 

Ferdinand  Magellan.     Magellan's  voyage  along  the  coast  of  South  America. 

Strait  of  Magellan.    Hardships  in  crossing  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Magellan's  death 

in  the  Philippines.    The  Moluccas.    Return  of  the  Victoria 

Section  43.    How  Magellan  sailed  around  South 
America  to  the  Pacific  Ocean 

The  Spice  Islands.  Between  Asia  and  Australia  lies 
a  vast  multitude  of  islands,  great  and  small,  called  the 
Malay  Archipelago.  Among  these  is  a  little  group  known 
as  the  Moluccas.  These  are  the  famous  Spice  Islands, 
toward  which  every  bold  sailor  in  the  age  of  discovery 
had  been  directing  his  eyes.  After  Da  Gama  had  reached 
India  by  going  around  Africa,  other  Portuguese  mariners 
pressed  further  east,  and  some  of  them  finally  reached 
the  Spice  Islands,  where  the  especially  rare  nutmeg  and 
cloves  grew. 

Charles  V  of  Spain  helps  Magellan.  Another  Portuguese, 
Ferdinand  Magellan,  now  formed  the  plan  of  sailing 
westward,  around  South  America,  in  order  to  reach  the 
Moluccas.  The  glory  of  his  adventure  fell,  however,  to 
Spain  instead  of  to  Portugal.  Magellan,  offended  by  a 
failure  on  the  part  of  the  Portuguese  monarch  to  reward 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  AROUND  THE  WORLD      243 


*-~-i«^^^ 


him  for  certain  services  he  had  performed,  turned  to  the 
Spanish  ruler,  Emperor  Charles  V.  Charles,  the  young 
grandson  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  received  Magellan 
cordially  and  lost  no  time  in  helping  him  to  get  ready 
for  what  proved  to  be  the  most  remarkable  voyage  of 
discovery  ever  made  —  the 
first  voyage  around  the 
world. 

Magellan's  fleet.  We 
are  fortunate  enough  to 
have  an  account  of  the 
fleet  with  which  Magellan 
set  sail.  This  is  in  a  letter 
that  an  ambassador  who 
was  sent  to  Spain  by  the 
king  of  Portugal  to  try 
to  persuade  Magellan  to 
return  to  his  own  country, 
wrote  back  to  the  king.  Of 
the  five  ships  that  made  up  the  fleet,  the  best  was  no 
larger  than  a  fishing  vessel,  and  was  very  old.  "  I  assure 
your  Highness,"  the  Portuguese  ambassador  wrote,  "  I 
should  not  care  to  sail  in  them  even  to  the  Canary  Islands." 

F^or  trade  with  the  natives  of  the  various  lands  that 
they  might  find,  Magellan  took  copper,  quicksilver,  colored 
cloth  and  silk,  silk  jackets,  bells,  knives,  and  looking- 
glasses.     He   planned   to  sail   straight   across  to   Brazil, 


Ferdinand  Magellan 


244      IN'lKODUCriON    TO  AMia<lCAN    HISTORY 

south  along  thu  coast  of  South  America,  and  then  north 
and  west  to  the  Mohiccas. 

The  l^est  account  of  the  great  voyage  is  one  written 
by  Pigafetta,  an  Italian  gentleman  who  sailed  with  Ma- 
gellan, and  who  had  many  curious  things  to  tell. 

On  the  twentieth  of  Sej)teml)er,  1519,  Magellan  and  his 
com])any  went  to  the  church  in  Seville  and  offered  prayer 
that  they  might  haxe  a  safe  and  j)r()sj)erous  \'())'age.  Then 
they  boarded  their  little  ileet,  dropped  down  the  river, 
and  sailed  out  into  the  wide  Atlantic,  making  their  way 
hrst  to  the  Canary  Islands  and  from  there  to  the  coast 
of  South  America. 

Magellan's  sh\\)  led  the  way  and  gaxe  the  necessary 
signals  to  the  other  vessels  —  l)y  da\'  with  flags  and  by 
night  with  burning  fagots  or  lanterns.  He  used  the 
utmost  care  to  keep  the  shij)s  together.  One  officer, 
however,  found  fault  with  his  leadership  and  tried  to  raise 
a  mutiny  among  the  others,  even  before  they  reached  the 
coast  of  Brazil.  Magellan  liacl  him  ])ut  in  irons,  ])ut  not 
before  the  seeds  of  future  trouble  had  been  sown. 

Voyage  along  South  America.  They  made  landings  at 
various  places  on  the  coast  of  South  America.  At  one 
place  Pigafetta  bought  six  hens  for  a  ])laying  card,  the 
king  of  diamonds  —  and  even  then  the  natives  thouglit 
they  had  got  the  best  of  him  ;  and  an\'  amount  of  ])ro- 
visions  could  be  purchased  with  the  bells  and  knives  that 
the  explorers   had   taken  ^^'ith   them.    On   the   coast   of 


\  J.I  Ul  ■•- JIF'l  (- ^^ 


C5T^^ 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  AROUND  THE  WORLD      245 

Patagonia  they  found  men  of  gigantic  size,  but  cf  a  gentle 
and  hospitable  disposition.  One  of  them  was  so  terrified 
at  the  sight  of  himself  in  a  mirror  that  he  fell  backwards, 
knocking  over  three  or  four  Spaniards  in  his  fall. 

It  was  at  this  place,  where  they  stayed  several  months, 
that  further  mutiny  broke  out.    The  rebellious  captains 


The  Strait  of  Magellan 

(From  a  photograph  by  Mr.  Charles  \V.  Furlongj 

swore  to  take  Magellan  back  to  Spain,  declaring  that  he 
was  leading  them  all  to  destruction.  Magellan  was  forced 
to  take  severe  measures.  Surprising  the  ringleaders,  he 
had  some  of  them  hanged,  while  others  he  left  behind 
on  the  shores  of  Patagonia.  In  spite  of  these  terrible  ex- 
amples of  punishment  one  ship  deserted  later  on  and  went 
back  to  Spain,  for  the  men  were  disgusted  with  the  cold, 
the  scant  food,  and  the  prospect  of  an  endless  voyage. 


246     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

At  last,  on  the  twenty-first  of  October,  1520,  —  by 
some  miracle,  wrote  Pigafetta,  —  they  came  upon  the 
entrance  to  a  wide  and  deep  strait,  on  both  sides  of  which 
were  lofty  snow-capped  mountains.  The  sailors  hesitated 
long  before  entering  it,  fearing  lest  there  be  no  way  out 
at  the  other  end,  but  Magellan  persisted  in  his  order  to 
proceed.  Two  ships  were  sent  ahead  to  explore.  For  two 
days  they  were  absent  and  everybody  thought  them  lost. 
When  finally  they  returned  to  tell  of  the  open  sea  beyond 
the  strait  Magellan  wept  for  joy.  He  now  felt  sure  that 
the  rest  of  the  way  to  the  Spice  Islands  would  be 
plain  sailing.^ 

Section    44.     How  Magp:llan's   Fleet  crossed  the 
Pacieic    Ocean 

For  almost  four  months  Magellan  and  his  company 
sailed  over  an  ocean  so  sinooth  and  calm  tliat  they  called 
it  the  Pacific.  Day  after  day  and  week  after  week  passed 
without  their  seeing  any  land  other  than  two  uninhabited 
coral  islands,  and  without  their  being  able  to  obtain  either 
provisions  or  water.  The  only  food  they  had,  toward  tlic 
last,  was  old  sea  biscuit,  full  of  worms,  and  the  only  water 
left  was  foul  and  yellow.  They  were  finally  reduced  to 
eating  some  oxhides  that  were  on  board,  soaking  them  in 
water  to  soften  them.  They  even  ate  sawdust,  and  rats, 
which  were  so  scarce  that  the  men  were  willing  to  pay 

1  The  strait  he  discovered  still  bears  his  name. 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  AROUND  THE  WORLD     247 

high  for  them.  Many  sailors  fell  ill  of  scurvy  and  nine- 
teen died  of  it.  Pigafetta,  telling  of  all  these  hardships, 
says  further,  "  I  think  that  never  man  will  undertake 
again  to  perform  r.uch  a  voyage." 

At  last  they  came  in  sight  of  inhabited  islands,  which 
Magellan  named  Ladrones,  a  Spanish  word  meaning 
'^  thieves,"  because  the  natives,  when  they  boarded  the 
ships,  carried  off  all  they  could  lay  their  hands  on.  The 
Spanish,  however,  obtained  fresh  fruit  and  other  food 
from  them,  and  went  on  their  way  much  cheered. 

Magellan's  death  in  the  Philippines.  At  last  they  reached 
the  Philippine  Islands  and,  landing  on  one  of  them,  took 
possession  of  llie  whole  group  in  the  name  of  Charles  V.^ 
The  natives  here  were  very  hospitable  to  these  the  first 
pAu-opeans  they  had  ever  seen,  giving  them  oranges, 
bananas,  coconuts,  and  other  provisions. 

Magellan  finally  landed  (1521)  at  Cebu,  where  he  made 
a  treaty  with  the  native  ruler  and  tried  to  persuade  him 
and  his  subjects  to  become  Christians.  This  they  seemed 
very  willing  to  do  and  the  king  and  queen  of  the  country, 
as  well  as  many  others,  v\'ere  accordingly  baptized.  Magel- 
lan told  them  that  they  must  burn  all  the  w^ooden  images 
wiiich  they  had  used  as  idols.    They  w^ere  so  obedient  and 

1  They  were  named  the  PhiHppine  Islands  in  honor  of  Charles's  son, 
Philip  II.  The  city  of  Manila,  on  the  island  of  Luzon,  was  made  the  capital 
of  the  entire  archipelago.  The  Spaniards  extended  Christianity  and  civilization 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  islands,  which  continued  to  belong  to  Spain 
until  they  were  purchased  by  the  United  States  at  the  close  of  the  Spanish- 
American  War  in  1898. 


24<S      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN    HISTORY 

yielding  in  every  respect  that  the  captain  was  dehghted  with 
them,  and  went  so  far  as  to  promise  to  aid  the  king  of  the 
island  in  any  trouble  that  might  arise  with  his  neighbors. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  king  asked  for  help  against 
a  chief  in  the  neighboring  island  of  Mactan  who  had 
rebelled  against  him.  The  Spaniards  tried  to  induce 
Magellan  to  give  up  the  idea  of  fighting,  but  he  was 
determined  to  help  the  new  convert  to  Christianity,  and 
even  insisted  upon  taking  the  most  dangerous  position  in 
the  battle.  It  was  thus  that  he  lost  his  life.  The  enemy 
picked  him  out  as  their  target,  and  he  fell,  covered  with 
wounds  from  their  arrows  and  spears,  dying  just  when  his 
courage  and  persistence  had  brought  him  through  the 
most  difficult  and  dangerous  part  of  his  journey,  and  when 
the  longed-for  Spice  Islands  were  almost  within  reach. 

Pigafetta  told  of  the  sorrow  of  the  Spaniards  over 
their  commander  s  death,  for  which  they  could  hardly  be 
consoled,  and  of  his  hope  that  the  memory  of  jVIagellan 
would  never  be  allowed  to  die. 

The  Spice  Islands  and  the  return  to  Spain.  The  Spaniards 
made  every  effort  to  regain  Magellan's  body,  but  the 
natives  would  not  give  it  up,  so  the  bones  of  the  great 
navigator  were  left  on  the  little  Pacific  island  where  he 
met  his  death.  Another  officer  was  elected  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  fleet,  and  the  ships  sailed  away  to  follow  their 
course  to  the  Moluccas.  They  passed  the  great  island  of 
Borneo,  as  well  as  other  smaller  ones,  and  at  last  came  in 


THE  FIRST  VOYAGE  AROUND  THE  WORLD     249 

sight  of  the  Spice  Islands,  where  the  company  gave  thanks 
to  God  and  discharged  all  their  artillery  for  joy  over  their 
arrival.  They  landed  on  one  of  the  islands  and  found  the 
king  and  people  hospitably  inclined.    Treaties  were  made 


Magellan's  Ship  the  Victoria 

and  the  natives  gave  great  quantities  of  spices  to  the 
Spanish  to  take  as  gifts  to  their  emperor,  Charles  V. 
When  they  were  ready  to  sail  for  home  it  was  found 
that  of  the  two  ships  that  were  still  left  from  the  fleet  of 
five  that  had  started  from  Spain  more  than  two  years 
before,  only  one  was  fit  to  make  the  voyage.    This  was 


250     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  Victoria.  She  set  sail  in  December,  across  the  Indian 
Ocean,  for  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  — "  that  terrible 
cape,"  as  it  was  called,  —  and  having  successfully  rounded 
it,  she  came  at  last  to  the  harbor  at  Seville  and  cast  anchor 
there  on  the  eightli  of  September,  1522,  three  years  from 
the  time  when  the  fleet  had  set  forth.  The  next  day  tlie 
Spanish  sailors,  barefoot  and  with  tapers  in  their  hands, 
went  to  visit  the  shrine  of  Santa  Maria  de  la  Victoria  and 
give  thanks  for  their  safe  return ;  and  upon  tlie  captain  of 
the  ship  Victoria  especial  honors  were  bestowed  iDy  the 
emperor  for  having  accomplished  the  marvelous  feat  of 
sailing  around  the  world. 

Questions.  1.  What  reasons  had  Charles  V  for  taking  a  great  interest 
in  Magellan's  plans  ?  2.  How  far  south  did  Magellan  have  to  go  from  the 
eastern  point  of  Brazil  to  reach  the  strait  which  was  named  after  him  ? 
3.  Is  it  farther  from  Seville  to  the  easternmost  point  of  Brazil  than  it  is 
from  there  to  the  Strait  of  Magellan  ?  4.  How  far  is  it  around  the  earth 
at  the  equator  ?  5.  Where  are  savages  found  to-day  like  those  Magellan 
saw  in  South  America  ? 

Reference.    Lawler.    The  Story  of  Columbus  and  Magellan,  p.  94. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  NEW  WORLD 

Hernando  Cortes.    His  march  to  the  City  of  Mexico.    The  civilization  of  the 

Aztecs.    The  death  of   Montezuma  and  the  capture  of  the  city  of  Mexico. 

Amerigo  Vespucci.    The   naming   of  America.    De   Soto's   discovery  of  the 

Mississippi  River.    Jacques  Cartier.    Spanish  missions 

Section  45.    Conquest  of  Mexico 

Spain  and  Portugal,  rivals.  Tlic  little  country  of  Portugal 
was  for  a  time  the  leader  in  exploring  the  globe,  owing  to 
the  enthusiasm  of  Henry  the  Navigator  and  the  successes 
of  Diaz  and  Vasco  da  Gama.  But  Spain  became  her  rival 
when  Columbus  began  to  make  his  voyages  to  America, 
and  it  was  from  a  Spanish  port  that  Magellan  started  on 
the  long  voyage  around  the  world.  Spain  showed  much 
energy,  too,  in  taking  possession  of  the  regions  which  her 
mariners  discovered.  She  sent  out  colonists  and  soldiers 
and  missionaries  to  form  settlements  and  to  make  further 
discoveries.  Above  all,  she  dreamed  of  finding  great 
stores  of  gold  and  silver  which  might  be  sent  home  and 
so  make  her  richer  than  any  other  European  country. 

Hernando  Cortes.  Of  all  the  Spaniards  that  went  to  the 
New  World  none  met  with  more  thrilling  adventures,  saw 
more  wonderful  sights,  or  made  greater  conquests  than 


252      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Hernando  Cortes.  Many  of  his  experiences  are  told  in 
the  long  messages  which  he  sent  back  to  the  emperor 
Charles  V.  Much  is  also  told  in  the  diary  of  a  soldier  in 
his  army,  named  Hernal  Diaz,  who  w^rote  down  an  account 
of  what  he  saw  and  did  on  his  campaign  wdth  Cortes. 

Hernando  Cortes  was  at  this  time  (about  15 19)  a  gay 
and  spirited  young  nobleman,  handsome,  graceful,  and 
affable.  He  had  early  tired  of  his  owai  country,  and  when 
he  was  but  nineteen  had  left  it  to  go  out  to  the  Spanish 
settlement  in  the  West  Indies  in  search  of  wealth  and  ad- 
venture. While  he  was  acting  as  assistant  to  the  Spanish 
governor  in  the  island  of  Cuba,  news  w^as  brought  of  the 
discovery  of  a  great  country  to  the  w^est.  Gold  had  been 
found  in  it  and  Indians,  called  Aztecs,  w^ho  knew  how  to 
build  houses  of  stone  and  mortar,  to  weave  cloth,  and  to 
make  ornaments  of  gold  and  silver.  This  country  was 
Mexico,  and  the  news  of  it  so  aroused  the  interest  of 
the  governor  of  Cuba  that  he  at  once  dispatched  Cortes 
with  ships  and  soldiers  to  take  possession  of  it.  This 
was  just  the  sort  of  adventure  that  Cortes  had  been 
looking  for.  With  a  small  army  of  about  six  hundred 
men,  a  few  horses,  and  some  cannon  and  ammunition, 
he  set  sail  from  Cuba  in  the  year  15 19  (the  same  year 
in  which  Magellan  started  upon  his  voyage),  and  in  due 
time  reached  the  coast  of  Mexico. 

Cortes  in  Mexico.  As  soon  as  he  landed  he  w^as  visited 
by   envoys   from    Montezuma,  the   most   powerful   ruler 


Emperor  Charles  V 
(From  a  painting  by  Titian) 


253 


254     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

among  the  Aztecs,  who  sent  to  Inquire  why  these  for- 
eigners had  appeared  in  his  country.  With  the  envoys 
came  painters,  who  made  pictures  of  the  Spaniards  and 
their  doings  to  carry  back  to  the  king.  Most  surprising 
to  the  Aztecs  were  the  horses  and  cannon,  the  like  of 
whicli  had  never  before  been  seen  in  tlieir  land. 

Cortes  announced  to  them  through  his  interpreter,  a 
beautiful  and  clever  Mexican  woman  who  had  become 
deeply  attached  to  him,  that  he  had  come  as  an  ambassa- 
dor from  the  Spanish  emperor  to  visit  their  king.  The 
Mexicans  replied  that  no  permission  could  be  granted  him 
to  see  Montezuma.  Cortes  said  that  he  would  not  leave 
the  country  until  he  had  had  an  interview  with  him ;  but 
still  the  answer  was  the  same  —  no  foreigner  could  be 
allowed  to  approach  the  great  Aztec  ruler  of  Mexico. 

Then  Cortes  made  a  momentous  decision.  Small  as  his 
following  was  and  great  as  was  the  power  of  Montezuma, 
he  resolved  not  to  turn  back  until  he  had  seen  the  king 
in  his  own  capital  and  established  himself  In  the  country. 
He  took  possession,  in  the  name  of  Charles  V,  of  the  strip 
of  coast  where  he  was  encamped,  and  to  make  certain  that 
there  should  be  no  retreating  from  his  decision,  he  had 
all  his  ships  destroyed.    Then  he  set  out  for  the  capital. 

This  march  to  the  City  of  Mexico  led  him  through 
many  towns  and  villages.  Some  of  the  people  were  hos- 
tile to  Montezuma  and  welcomed  Cortes  gladly,  hoping 
that  he  might  free  them  from  their  enemy.    Others  were 


THE  NEW  WORLD 


255 


so  loyal  to  the  king  that,  although  they  also  met  Cortes 
with  an  appearance  of  hospitality  and  gave  fair  promises 
of  helping  him,  they  made  every  effort  to  destroy  the 
Spanish  army.  When  Cortes  discovered  the  plans  of 
these  latter  he  spared  none  that  he  could  reach,  slaying 
many  and  burning  some  alive. 

Making  his  way  thus  through  the  country,  Cortes  and 
his  army  came  at  last  within  sight  of  the  City  of  Mexico, 
built  partly  on  an  island  and  partly  over  the  waters  of 
the  lake.  The  soldier  Diaz  says  in  his  diary  that  when 
they  saw  all  the  towers  and  temples,  made  of  solid 
masonry,  yet  rising  from  the  water  and  reflected  in  it 
like  enchanted  castles,  they  looked  at  one  another  in 
amazement,  asking  if  these  things  that  they  saw  w^ere 
not  a  dream  rather  than  reality.  Everyw^here  were  flow- 
ering gardens  and  blooming  terraces,  and  even  floating 
rose  gardens ;  and  in  the  distance,  encircling  the  city 
and  its  surrounding  villages  and  the  wide  green  plains 
in  which  they  were  set,  was  range  after  range  of  misty 
blue  mountains. 

Montezuma  and  the  Aztecs.  As  Cortes  and  his  army, 
with  their  prancing  horses,  drew  nearer  to  the  city,  Mon- 
tezuma himself,  splendidly  adorned  with  gold  and  jewels, 
came  out  wdth  a  magnificent  procession  to  meet  them, 
along  the  wide  causeway  that  led  over  the  waters  of  the 
lake.  The  two  leaders  saluted  one  another  with  much 
ceremony,  and  Cortes  was  presented  with  a  rich  necklace 


256      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

by  the  king  and  gave  him  one  in  return.  Then  all,  both 
Mexicans  and  Spaniards,  returned  over  the  causeway 
into  the  city,  where  quarters  were  assigned  the  Spaniards 
in  one  of  the  king's  palaces. 

Here  the  invaders  were  nobly  entertained  by  Monte- 
zuma and  taken  to  see  the  sights  of  the  Aztec  capital. 


Temple  Pyramid  in  Mexico 


The  vast  market  place  aroused  their  wonder.  It  was 
larger  than  any  they  had  ever  seen,  and  displayed  the 
greatest  variety  of  merchandise.  There  were  food  and 
clothing  of  many  kinds,  wines,  medicines,  and  perfumes, 
chairs,  tables,  and  beds,  fine  pottery,  beautifully  wrought 
ornaments  of  gold  and  silver,  and  designs  of  bright- 
colored  feathers  woven  so  skillfully  that  they  looked  like 


THE  NEW  WORLD  257 

paintings.  There  were  painters'  materials,  and  even 
paper.  These  were  used  for  making  pictures,  for  the 
Aztecs'  writing  was  still  in  the  stage  called  hieroglyphic ; 
that  is,  they  had  no  alphabet,  but  expressed  themselves 
by  means  of  pictures. 

In  every  interview  between  the  two  leaders  Monte/.uma 
displayed  dignity  and  graciousness.  Even  when  Cortes 
took  his  final  daring  step  and  demanded  that  the  mon- 
arch should  surrender  himself  because  his  subjects  had 
slain  some  Spaniards,  the  courteous  demeanor  of  the 
Aztec  king  was  unchanged.  Wlien  he  recovered  from 
his  amazement  he  replied :  "  I  am  not  one  of  those 
persons  who  are  put  in  prison.  Even  if  I  were  to 
consent,  my  subjects  would  never  permit  it." 

But  such  were  the  audacity  and  decision  of  Cortes 
that  Montezuma  was  forced  to  yield  and  w^as  taken  to  the 
Spanish  quarters.  His  arrest  terrified  his  subjects  beyond 
words.  It  was  weeks  before  the  idea  of  resistance  occurred 
to  them.  When  at  last  they  became  rebellious  against 
their  new  masters,  Montezuma  himself  attempted  to  pacify 
them,  and  in  one  of  the  struggles  between  the  Spaniards 
and  the  Aztecs  he  received  his  death  wound.  The  gentle 
monarch  had  made  such  an  impression  even  upon  his 
captors  that  when  he  died  they  were  sincerely  sorry ;  "  and 
no  wonder,"  wrote  Diaz,  "  seeing  that  he  was  so  good." 

Capture  and  rebuilding  of  the  City  of  Mexico.  His 
death  inspired   the   Aztecs  with   such  fury  against   the 


25cS      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Spaniards  that  Cortes  was  forced  to  retreat  from  the 
city.  He  then  made  an  alHance  with  a  tribe  hostile  to 
the  City  of  Mexico  and  laid  siege  to  the  town,  determined 
to  fight  out  the  war  to  the  finish.  In  this  long  struggle, 
in  which  the  Spanish  were  finally  victorious,  the  Aztecs 
fought  with  desperate  and  unfailing  courage,  but  their 
fair  temples,  palaces,  and  courts  were  all  brought  to  utter 
ruin  and  the  whole  place  was  laid  waste,  while  the  loss  of 
both  Spanish  and  Aztec  soldiers  was  past  reckoning. 

Cortes  now  gave  all  his  attention  to  the  rebuilding  of 
the  city,  and  to  filling  it  with  his  own  men  and  with 
those  who  had  been  his  allies  during  the  war.  At  the 
same  time  he  allowed  the  conquered  people  to  hold  their 
old  positions  as  far  as  possible  and  treated  them  with 
great  consideration.  He  set  up  chapels  in  order  that  the 
Christian  religion  might  be  established  in  the  country, 
and  before  long  a  new  town  had  arisen,  though  it  was  far 
from  approaching  in  beauty  the  old  Aztec  city  of  Monte- 
zuma. The  whole  country  was  finally  conquered  in  the 
name  of  Charles  V,  and  remained  a  rich  and  valuable 
possession  of  Spain  for  three  centuries. 

Section  46.    The  Progress  of  Discovery 

Amerigo  Vespucci  and  the  naming  of  America.  Among 
the  many  other  explorers  and  discoverers  who  set  forth 
in  those  wonderful  days  of  adventure  to  follow  their  for- 
tunes in  the  western  seas  was  one  Amerigo  Vespucci. 


THE  NEW  WORLD  259 

According  to  his  own  account  he  made  a  voyage  to  the 
coast  of  South  America  in  1497,  and  if  what  he  writes  is 
true,  he  was  the  explorer  by  whom  the  South  American 
coast  was  first  discovered.^ 

Afterwards  he  had  a  sliare  in  conducting  a  second 
voyage.  He  wrote  out  an  account  of  these  two  voyages 
and  of  two  others  that  he  claimed  to  have  made  later, 
and  in  time  this  narrative  was  printed.  In  the  book  in 
which  it  appeared  the  printer  made  the  suggestion  that 
the  part  of  the  world  which  Amerigo  Vespucci  said  he 
had  discovered  should  take  its  name  from  liim  and  be 
called  Amerigo,  or  Aincrica\  and,  following  his  own 
suggestion,  he  printed  the  word  "  America "  in  large 
letters  on  the  margin  of  the  book.  This  is  the  first 
appearance,  so  far  as  we  know,  of  the  name  "  America." 
The  use  of  the  expression  "  New  World  "  to  describe 
the  American  continent  appears  about  this  time  also. 

Ferdinand  de  Soto.  Twenty  )'cars  after  Cortes  conquered 
Mexico,  another  explorer,  Ferdinand  dc  Soto,  aroused 
great  interest  in  Europe  by  his  adventures  in  the  New 
World.  De  Soto  set  fortli  with  his  company  to  explore 
and  conquer  Florida,  and  to  find  the  gold  that  it  w^as 
believed  lay  in  store  there. 

Fie  found  no  gold.  His  great  discovery  was  that  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  in  1542,  after  almost  three  years  of  toil 

1  Historians  in  general  believe  that  it  was  Columbus  who  first  touched  upon 
the  shores  of  South  America,  in  1498. 


26o     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


and  hardship  in  the  wilderness ;  and  on  its  banks,  shortly 
afterwards,  he  died,  worn  out  by  his  long  journey.  His 
body  was  secretly  buried  at  midnight  in  the  waters  of 
the  great  river,  lest  the  Indians,  who  had  been  told  that 

the  Spaniards  were  im- 
mortal, should  discover 
how  they  had  been  de- 
ceived. 

Balboa.  Vasco  Nunez 
de  Balboa  was  a  planter  of 
Hispaniola  (Hayti),  who 
had  fallen  into  debt.  He 
therefore  sought  to  re- 
trieve his  fortunes  through 
a  voyage  of  adventure.  A 
company  of  settlers  being 
about  to  sail  for  the  main- 
land of  South  America, 
Balboa  had  himself  nailed 
up  in  a  barrel  and  put  on 
board  with  the  provisions 
in  order  to  evade  his  cred- 
itors. He  soon  became  a  leader  of  the  colonists,  and  at 
his  urging  they  settled  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  instead 
of  South  America.  Here  he  secured  provisions  from  the 
Indians,  made  an  alliance  with  one  of  their  chiefs,  and 
received  a  present  of  fifty  pounds  of  gold  from  another. 


A  Spanish  Galleon 


THE  NEW  WORLD 


261 


When  the  Spaniards  quarreled  over  the  booty,  the  chief, 
pointing  to  the  west,  said  that  he  could  show  them  a  region 
where  they  could  get  all  the  gold  they  wanted  and  a  sea 
on  which  large  ships  sailed.  In  15 13,  hearing  that  a 
governor  was  coming  from  Spain  to  pass  upon  his  acts, 
Balboa  decided  to  test  the  truth  of  the  chief's  words. 
Accordingly,  with  about 
two  hundred  Spaniards 
and  some  hundreds  more 
of  Indians,  he  set  out  to 
find  the  sea  of  which  he 
had  been  told.  He  crossed 
the  forty-five  miles  of 
tropical  forest,  through 
swamps  and  over  cliffs,  in 
the  short  time  of  eighteen 
days.  Advancing  alone 
to    the     last     ridge,     he 

looked  out  on  the  broad  Pacific.  He  then  called 
his  companions  to  him  and  showed  them  also  the  great 
sea.  Four  days  later  he  reached  the  shores  of  San 
Miguel  Bay  and  took  possession  of  the  sea  in  the  name 
of  the  king  of  Spain.  Balboa  had  made  one  of  the  great 
discoveries  and  had  displayed  great  courage  and  leader- 
ship. After  four  years  of  further  exploration,  chiefiy 
along  the  Pacific  coast  north  of  Panama,  he  was  put  to 
death   by  a  jealous  governor,  just   as  he  was   about   to 


Balboa  disco\ers  the  Pacific 


262      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

undertake  an  expedition  for  the  conquest  of  Peru.  The 
discovery  by  Balboa  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  the  sub- 
sequent exploration  of  its  coasts,  clearly  proved  to 
Europeans  that  America  was  a  new  continent  and  not 
the  eastern  part  of  Asia. 

Francisco  Pizarro.  Pizarro  had  accompanied  some  of 
the  Spanish  colonists  to  Hispaniola  and  later  had 
been  a  member  of  Balboa's  expedition  that  crossed  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  and  discovered  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
Under  the  direction  of  the  governor  of  Panama  he 
accompanied  exploring  expeditions  sent  to  the  south 
from  that  city.  More  and  more  rumors  came  of  the 
countries  rich  in  gold  to  be  found  along  the  west 
coast  of  South  America.  Pizarro  was  finally  able  to  get 
some  of  the  officials  of  Panama  sufficiently  interested 
to  provide  funds  for  an  expedition.  After  several  un- 
successful trips  to  the  south  he  obtained  from  the 
natives  enough  gold  to  give  color  to  the  stories  of  the 
great  wealth  to  be  obtained,  and  succeeded  in  getting 
authority  from  the  king  of  Spain  to  back  his  plans  of 
conquest  and  exploration. 

With  a  company  of  fewer  than  two  hundred  soldiers 
Pizarro  left  Panama  in  January,  1531,  and  made  his 
way  south  to  the  coast  of  Peru.  At  his  numerous 
stopping  places  he  was,  as  a  rule,  kindly  received  by 
the  natives  and  furnished  with  water  and  food.  Some 
gold    was    obtained,   and    he    was    told    that    the    Inca 


THE  NEW  WORLD 


263 


(the  title  of  the  native  rulers  of  Peru)  had  other  great 
cities  full  of  still  richer  treasure. 

The  Inca,  Atahualpa,  had  just  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing his  authority  over  a  rival  claimant  to  the  throne 
and  was  encamped,  with  an  army  of  perhaps  forty 
thousand  warriors,  some  distance  back  from  the  coast. 

Pizarro  and  his 
men  made  their 
way  along  the 
edges  of  the  cliffs 
and  over  the  nar- 
row defiles  of  the 
Western  Andes, 
where  the  little 
band  might  have 
been  attacked 
and  overwhelmed 
at  any  moment. 
When  they  final- 
ly reached  the  camp  of  the  Inca  they  were  received  kindly 
but  cautiously,  and  provision  was  made  for  them  in  a  near- 
by town,  where  the  Inca  promised  to  visit  the  Spaniards. 

Pizarro,  fearing  that  he  and  his  men  would  be  taken  and 
killed,  resolved  upon  the  desperate  move  of  seizing  the 
Inca  and  holding  him  as  hostage.  This  bold  stroke  suc- 
ceeded, the  Spaniards  putting  to  death  two  thousand  out 
of  the  five  thousand  people  that  had  accompanied  the  Inca. 


Spanish  Explorations 


264     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Pizarro,  tlie  only  Spaniard  that  was  even  wounded,  was 
struck  by  one  of  his  own  men  while  he  was  protecting 
the  Inca,  not  wishing  him  to  be  killed.  The  Inca,  thus 
treacherously  seized,  promised,  if  Pizarro  would  release 
him,  to  fill  a  room  about  twenty  feet  square  to  a  depth 
of  nine  feet  with  articles  of  gold.  Pizarro  consented 
to  this,  but  the  greedy  Spaniards  divided  the  treasure 
before  the  agreed-upon  height  had  been  quite  reached, 
and  then  had  the  Inca  put  to  death.  The  rest  of  the 
story  is  only  that  of  repeated  defeats  of  the  natives  and 
the  looting  of  their  cities  and  temples.  The  gold  received 
for  the  ransom  of  the  Inca  was  valued  at  about  fifteen 
million  dollars,  and  this  was  but  a  fraction  of  the  total 
obtained  by  the  invaders. 

After  the  Spaniards  had  established  their  rule  under 
Pizarro  as  governor,  quarrels  arose,  and  the  conqueror 
of  Peru  was  slain  in  a  revolt  against  him  by  Spanish 
colonists  who  objected  to  his  arbitrary  rule. 

Coronado.  A  wandering  Spanish  priest  had  told  in 
Mexico  of  a  large  city  which  he  had  seen  and  which 
lay  to  the  northwest  of  New  Spain,  as  Mexico  was 
then  called.  This  story  became  coupled  with  a  legend 
of  "  The  Seven  Cities  of  Cibola,"  which  were  said  to 
be  fabulously  rich  in  gold  and  silver.  The  Spaniards 
thought  that  the  city  seen  by  the  priest  must  be 
one  of  these  seven  rich  cities.  These  cities  were  in 
all  proI:)ability  the  towns  of  the  Zuni   Indians. 


THI':  NEW  WORLD 


^65 


The  governor  of  Mexico 
thought  it  wise  to  explore 
this  region  and  to  conquer 
the  cities.  He  selected  as 
leader  of  the  expedition 
Francisco  de  Coronado,  the 
governor  of  the  northern 
province  of  New  Spain. 
Coronado  started  up  the 
west  coast  of  Mexico  in 
1540  with  an  expedition 
numbering  over  eleven  hun- 
dred Spanish  and  Indians, 
vjiih  droves  of  sheep  and 
pigs  to  provide  food.  Two 
ships  which  followed  along 
the  coast  discovered  the 
Colorado  River  and  explored 
it  as  far  as  the  lower  end 
of  the  canon. 

Coronado  left  the  coast 
and  advanced  with  part  of 
his  expedition  to  Cibola, 
the  first  of  the  cities.  The 
city  w^as  captured,  but  there 
was  much  disappointment  among  the  Spaniards,  since  the 
fabled  wealth  was  not  to  be  found.    Here  Coronado  sent 


Coronado  discovers  the  Grand 
Canon  of  the  Colorado 


266     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

for  the  main  body  of  the  expedition.  When  it  arrived  he 
moved  onward  to  New  Mexico,  where  he  had  an  encounter 
with  the  Indians.  Coronado  now  heard  from  an  Indian 
prisoner  of  a  fine  city  called  "  Quivira,"  situated  to  the 
northeast.  He  marched  in  that  direction  to  Oklahoma, 
where  he  left  most  of  his  party,  while  he  himself,  with 
about  thirty  horsemen,  continued  as  far  as  the  middle 
of  what  is  now  the  state  of  Kansas.  Here  he  found 
the  city  about  which  the  Indian  had  told  such  wonder- 
ful stories.     It  was  a  miserable  collection  of  Indian  huts. 

A  branch  expedition  crossed  the  Colorado  and  proved 
Lower  California  to  be  a  peninsula. 

The  following  spring  Coronado  returned  to  Mexico. 
He  had  lost  only  two  missionaries  and  a  few  Indians 
on  his  long  journey. 

The  explorations  of  Coronado  formed  a  basis  for 
the  claim  of  Spain  to  all  of  North  America  from  the 
Mississippi  Valley  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  north  of  Mexico. 

**  Spanish  America'*  and  its  missions.  Year  after  year 
adventurers  came  over  from  Spain  and  pushed  their  dis- 
coveries in  every  direction.  In  time  "Spanish  America" 
came  to  include  a  vast  extent  of  territory  in  both  South 
and  North  America.  And  over  the  seas,  year  after  year, 
went  fleets  of  Spanish  galleons  and  caravels,^  carrying 

1  A  galleon  was  a  huge  seagoing  ship,  with  three  or  four  decks,  used  by  the 
Spaniards  both  as  a  man-of-war  and  as  a  freight  vessel.  A  caravel  was  a  smaller 
and  lighter  freight  vessel. 


THE  NEW  WORLD 


267 


back  to  the  mother  country  rich  cargoes  of  gold   and 
silver  from  her  great  American  possessions. 

Whenever  the  Spanish  took  possession  of  a  country 
in  America  they  sent  over  priests   and   friars   to   build 


Thk  Mission  at  Santa  Barbara,  California 

(From  a  photograph  by  Mr.  R.  F.  Engle) 

missions  and  churches,  and  schools  in  which  to  teach  the 
natives  the  Catholic  religion.  The  priests  lived  in  their 
missions  much  as  the  monks  lived  in  the  monasteries  of 
Europe,  except  that  they  had  more  to  do  with  people 
outside.  They  learned  the  language  of  the  Indians  and 
taught  them  to  read,  to  raise  grain,  to  do  carpenter  work, 


268     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

to   make   shoes,   to   spin  and   weave  cloth,  and    helped 
them  to  live  peaceably  with  one  another. 

These  priests  were  for  the  most  part  members  of  the 
order  of  St.  Francis.    Coming  north  from  Mexico,  they 


Corridor  of  Santa   i3ARBARA  Mission 

(From  a  photograph  by  Mr.  R.  F.  Engle) 

built  missions  along  the  Pacific  coast  from  San  Diego 
to  San  Francisco.  Some  of  these  old  buildings  are  still 
to  be  seen  in  the  fertile  California  valleys.  In  the  fashion 
of  the  Benedictine  monasteries,  with  their  long,  low  build- 
ings, cloistered  walks,  and  red-tiled  roofs  set  in  the  midst 
of  gardens  and  orchards,  they  made  a  pleasant  haven  for 


THE  NEW  WORLD  269 

the  whole  country.  Some  of  them  are  in  ruins  now,  and 
many  are  deserted,  but  there  are  still  a  few  flourishing 
enough  to  show  us  what  they  all  once  were. 

Questions.  1.  What  object  had  Cortes  in  conquering  Mexico?  2.  What 
other  people  besides  the  Aztecs  used  picture  writing  or  hieroglyphics  ? 
3.  Why  was  Balboa's  discovery  of  the  Pacific  important  ?  4.  What  two 
Spanish  explorers  were  near  the  Mississippi  River  about  the  same  time 
in  1 541  ?  5.  Why  do  you  suppose  it  was  so  easy  for  Pizarro  to  conquer 
the  Peruvians  ?  6.  What  was  the  importance  of  the  explorations  of 
Coronado  ?    7.  What  lands  does  Spain  possess  in  America  to-day  ? 

References.  Robinson.  Readings  in  European  History,  Vol.  H, 
pp.  24-27  (Spain  at  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth  century).  Old  South 
Leaflets,  Vol.  H,  No.  34  (Amerigo  Vespucci's  account  of  his  first  voyage); 
No.  35  (Cortes'  description  of  the  City  of  Mexico);  No.  36  (death  of 
De  Soto).  FiSKE.  Discovery  of  America.  Prescott.  Conquest  of  Peru. 
Bourne.    Spain  in  America. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

FRANCE  AND  THE  NEW  WORLD 

Francis  T  and  Charles  V,  The  Chevaher  Bayard.  Joan  of  Arc.  The  Huguenots. 
French  missionaries  and  explorers  in  America 

Section  47.    Francis  I  of  France  and  Emperor 
Charles  V  of  Spain 

Just  after  the  discovery  of  America,  Spain,  under  the 
rule  of  Emperor  Charles  V,  of  whom  we  have  read  in 
preceding  chapters,  came  to  be  so  powerful  a  nation 
that  the  other  countries  of  Europe  grew  afraid  of  her 
and  tried  in  every  possible  way  to  weaken  her  power. 
France,  under  several  kings,  made  almost  constant  war 
on  Spain  and  her  possessions.  England  also  fought  a 
war  with  the  Spanish.  Of  this  war  and  its  outconie  we 
shall  read  later. 

The  domain  over  which  Charles  V  ruled  was  the 
largest  in  Europe  since  the  days  of  Charlemagne  and 
included  Spain,  Holland,  Belgium,  Germany,^  Austria, 
and  a  part  of  Italy,  as  well  as  all  of  Spanish  America. 
It   bordered    on    the    north   and    south   of    France,   and 

1  In  those  days  there  was  no  German  Empire,  there  was  only  what  the  French 
called  "  the  Germanys,"  which  were  two  or  three  hundred  different  states.  The 
late  German  Empire  was  in  existence  only  from  187 1  to  191 8. 

270 


FRANCE  AND  THE   NEW  WORLD 


71 


King  Francis  I,  sometimes  called  "the  Gentleman  of 
F' ranee,"  who  was  of  a  gay  and  romantic  nature,  loving 
war  and  its  excitements  and  ambitious  to  extend  his 
borders,  engaged  in  continual  conflict  with  the  emperor. 
It  was  in  these  wars  that  the  brave  and  noble  Chevalier 
Bayard,  the  French  knight 
praised  as  le  bou  chevalier 
sans  pen r  et  sans  reproche, 
took  so  valiant  a  part  in 
saving  France  from  hope- 
less defeat. 

The  Chevalier  Bayard. 
This  famous  knight,  so 
modest,  brave,  and  chival- 
rous, is  one  of  the  great 
heroes  of  F^rance.  The 
story  is  told  of  him  that  ^ 

he  held  a  bridge   almost 

single-handed  against  the  Fkaxcis  1 

Spaniards,     and     so    en- 
abled the  F>ench  to  make  good  their  retreat.    In  another 
battle,  called  the  "  Battle  of  the  Spurs,"  Bayard,  deserted 
by  his  comrades,  fought  until  he  was  taken  prisoner  and 
had  to  be  ransomed. 

Afterwards,  under  Francis  I,  Bayard  accompanied  the 
French  army  to  Italy,  where  Emperor  Charles  had  some 
possessions.     Here  a  tremendous   battle  was  fought  at 


272      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Marignano.  Bayard  fought  so  bravely  and  so  valiantly 
that  the  king  desired  to  be  knighted  by  him.  The  knight 
protested  that  it  was  not  right  for  a  king  to  be  knighted 
by  a  subject,  but  Francis  said  he  wished  to  be  knighted 
by  the  bravest  soldier  in  the  world.  Bayard  thereupon 
knighted  the  king  by  striking  him  across  the  shoulders 
with  the  flat  of  his  sword,  a  ceremony  which  is  called  the 
"  accolade."  The  sword  which  he  had  used  was  carefully 
put  away  by  Bayard,  never  again  to  be  used  except 
against  the  infidel.  When,  in  a  later  battle.  Bayard  was 
mortally  wounded,  even  the  enemy  had  such  admiration 
and  regard  for  him  that  they  erected  a  tent  over  the 
dying  knight,  that  he  might  be  as  comfortable  as  possible 
during  his  last  moments  on  earth. 

Section  48.   Joan  of  Arc 

In  the  century  just  before  the  times  of  which  we  have 
been  reading  there  lived  another  glorious  French  patriot, 
so  wonderfully  inspired  that  w^e  may  be  allowed  to  tell 
her  story  here,  even  though  it  does  not  belong  in  this 
period  of  history.  This  was  the  heroine,  Joan  of  Arc, 
who  was  the  savior  of  her  country  when  it  was  hard 
pressed  in  the  long  series  of  wars  which  was  carried  on 
between  French  and  English  kings,  called  the  Hundred 
Years'  War. 

Joan  of  Arc  was  a  young  peasant  girl  whose  home 
was  in  a  little  village  in  the  eastern  part  of  France.    She 


FRANCE  AND  THE  NEW  WORLD 


'^IZ 


passed  her  days,  like  the  other  girls  of  her  village,  in 
helping  with  the  household  duties,  with  spinning  and 
sewing,  work  of  which  the  girls  of  that  time  had  a  great 
deal  to  do,  and  in 
which  Joan  had 
great  skill.  She 
spent  her  play- 
time in  the  forest 
near  her  home ; 
and  her  gentle- 
ness made  even 
the  birds  and  the 
squirrels  friendly 
and  tame. 

As  she  grew 
older  and  heard 
of  the  ravages  of 
the  enemy  and 
saw  how  on  all 
sides  they  were 
laying  the  coun- 
try waste,  her 
tender  heart  was 
filled  with  pity  for  the  fair  realm  of  France,  and  she 
longed  passionately  to  aid  her  country. 

After  a  while  she  began  to  see  visions  and  to  hear 
voices    that   seemed    to    her  to   come   from    the    saints. 


Jo AX  OF  Arc 

(From  the  statue  by  Chapu) 


274     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

bidding  her  help  the  dauphin  and  save  her  country.  The 
first  voice  came  to  her  at  noon  of  a  summer  day,  when 
she  was  in  her  father's  garden.  It  came  with  a  sudden 
Hght  before  her  eyes  and  bade  her  go  to  aid  the  king. 
But  she  knew  not  how,  she  said ;  she  coukl  not  ride  to 
war  or  lead  the  soldiers.  Still  the  voice  in  her  ears  per- 
sisted, encouraging  and  commanding  her,  bidding  her 
go  to  the  French  commander  and  tell  him  she  would 
save   France  for  her  king. 

Again  and  again  the  voice  came,  until  in  the  end  Joan 
felt  that  she  must  obey,  though  it  would  have  been  far 
easier  to  remain  at  home,  spinning  at  her  mother's  side. 
Her  father,  indeed,  forbade  her  to  go,  and  she  had  great 
difficulty  in  winning  the  confidence  of  the  French  captain 
to  whom  she  declared  her  purpose.  But  in  the  face  of  all 
obstacles  she  maintained  her  gentle  persistence,  until  at 
last  she  prevailed  and  one  day  rode  off  with  an  escort  of 
soldiers,  dressed  in  a  man's  doublet  and  hose,  booted  and 
spurred,  her  dark  hair  cut  short,  and  a  sword  clanking  at 
her  side.  It  was  thus  that  she  appeared  before  the  dau- 
phin and  his  little  court,  and  in  time  she  inspired  them 
too  with  faith  in  her  and  her  great  mission. 

From  that  time  on  all  France  w^as  with  her.  She 
won  the  allegiance  of  every  one  —  of  dukes  and  nobles, 
as  well  as  of  the  roughest  soldiers.  Riding  at  the  head 
of  the  army,  clad  in  white  armor  and  carrying  a  banner 
bearing  the  lilies  of  France,  she  led  the  French  against 


FRANCE  AND  THE  NEW  WORLD  275 

the  English,  and  under  her  inspiration  and  enthusiasm 
they  were  enabled  at  last,  in  1429,  to  triumph  over  the 
enemy  and  drive  them  away  from  the  town  of  Orleans, 
which  had  been  besieged  for  many  months. 

After  this  great  victory  Joan,  now  called  the  "  Maid 
of  Orleans"  by  the  adoring  army,  felt  that  her  mission 
had  been  fulfilled.  So  she  besought  permission  to  return 
to  her  home  and  her  parents.  But  the  daupliin  had  such 
confidence  in  her  power  that  he  would  not  let  her  go. 
He  must  keep  her  until  the  English  had  been  driven 
quite  out  of  the  country. 

So  she  stayed,  still  winning  victory  after  victory,  until 
her  tragic  end  began  to  draw  near ;  for  in  spite  of  her 
modesty  and  humility  the  other  French  commanders 
began  to  grow  jealous  of  her  power  and  through  some 
treachery  allowed  her  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  F^rench 
duke  who  sold  her  to  the  English.  The  latter  were 
ready  to  pay  almost  any  price  to  get  hold  of  the 
marvelous  young  girl  who  was  turning  all  their  former 
successes  to  failures.  She  was  immediately  imprisoned 
and  put  on  trial  for  witchcraft,  for  her  victories  had 
been  so  amazing  that  her  enemies  believed  the  devil 
must  have  helped  her  to  win  them. 

Throughout  her  imprisonment  and  trial  she  displayed 
wonderful  fortitude.  But  her  judges  were  determined 
to  convict  her,  and  she  was  finally  declared  guilty  of 
witchcraft  and  sentenced  to  be  burned  at  the  stake  in 


276     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

the  market  place  of  Rouen.  In  her  death  she  was  as 
noble  and  heroic  as  in  her  life,  and  many  of  those  who 
before  had  believed  her  guilty  now  came  to  feel  that 
she  was  a  saint  and  a  martyr.  One  English  soldier, 
who  hated  her  so  fiercely  that  he  had  come  to  her 
execution  intending  to  throw  a  fagot  on  the  fire  to 
make  it  burn  the  brighter,  went  away  after  her  death 
crying,  "  We  are  lost !    We  have  burned  a  saint !  " 

The  English,  moreover,  gained  nothing  by  the  death 
of  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  for  her  influence  still  animated 
the  Erench  army,  and  in  the  end  it  was  victorious  and 
drove  the  enemy  from  the  country. 

Section  49.    The  Erench  in  America 

Jacques  Cartier.  About  the  year  1534  F'rancis  I  sent  a 
hardy  Breton  captain  named  Jacques  Cartier  to  make 
explorations  and  discoveries  in  America  and  to  extend 
the  territories  of  Erance.  Cartier  sailed  from  St.  Malo,  a 
great  fishing  port.  He  reached  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence, 
but  decided  to  return  to  Erance  on  account  of  a  shortage 
of  supplies.  Returning  the  following  year,  he  carefully 
explored  the  St.  Lawrence  River  as  far  as  the  Lachine 
Rapids,^  at  the  present  site  of  Montreal.  Cartier  and  his 
party  wintered  at  the  foot  of  the  cliffs  at  Quebec.  On 
their  return  to  Erance  they  brought  back  discouraging 

1  La  Chine  is  the  French  name  for  China.  The  rapids  were  so  named  in  deri- 
sion of  the  idea  that  a  route  to  Asia  could  be  found  by  following  the  St.  Lawrence, 


FRANCE  AND  THE  NEW  WORLD  277 

stories  of  the  severe  climate.  Five  years  later  Cartier 
returned  to  Quebec,  where  he  built  a  fort  as  the  begin- 
ning of  a  colony,  but  the  settlement  was  abandoned  the 
next  year  on  account  of  disagreements  among  the  colo- 
nists and  delay  in  receiving  aid  from  France.  He  claimed 
that  part  of  North  America  for  France,  however,  and 
French  colonies  were  founded  there  before  many  years. 
The  Huguenots  attempt  to  settle  in  America.  About 
the  time  of  the  explorations  of  Cartier,  religious  differ- 
ences arose  among  the  people  of  France,  just  as  they 
did  in  other  countries  of  Europe.  Those  who  desired 
a  change  in  the  prevailing  religion,  and  wlio  agreed  in 
general  with  tlie  followers  of  Martin  Luther  in  Germany, 
were  called  Huguenots.  Partly  on  account  of  their  re- 
ligious beliefs  and  partly  on  account  of  their  political 
activities,  the  Huguenots  were  subject  to  many  repres- 
sive laws.  As  a  means  of  relief  from  these  troubles 
some  of  the  Huguenots  decided  to  try  to  obtain  per- 
mission to  leave  France  and  settle  in  America.  Through 
the  help  of  the  great  Huguenot  nobleman.  Admiral 
Coligny,  a  colonizing  expedition  was  sent  out.  It 
reached  the  coast  of  what  is  now  South  Carolina  and 
made  a  settlement,  which  was  called  Port  Royal.  This 
settlement  was  soon  abandoned.  Two  years  later  another 
fort  was  built  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Johns  River, 
Florida,  on  land  which  was  claimed  by  Spain.  The 
news  of  this  new  French  settlement  angered  the  Spanish, 


278     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


who  considered  that  France  was  making  an  attempt  to 
obtain  land  which  belonged  to  Spain.  The  next  year 
(.1565)  a  force  of  several  thousand  men  was  sent  to  attack 
Fort  Caroline,  as  the  little  French  settlement  was  named. 

The     Spaniards    first 
v'^  -  built  Fort  St.  Augustine, 

which  was  the  first  per- 
manent settlement  by 
Europeans  within  the 
bounds  of  the  United 
States.  After  building 
the  fort,  the  Spanish 
commander,  Menendez, 
attacked  Fort  Caroline, 
overpowered  the  garrison, 
and  destroyed  the  settle- 
ment. Every  Frenchman 
either  was  killed  in  the 
fight  or  was  afterwards 
captured  and  driven  to 
Fort  St.  Augustine. 
For  many  years  no  further  attempt  was  made  by 
France  to  settle  in  America,  l^oward  the  close  of  the 
century  some  efforts  were  made  to  establish  colonies, 
but  it  was  not  until  the  settlement  of  Port  Royal  in 
Nova  Scotia  in  1605  ^^^^^  the  French  succeeded  in  get- 
ting a  permanent  foothold  on  the  Western  Continent. 


Driving  the  Fkenxh  Captives  to 
Fort  St.  AuciusTixE 


FRANCE  AND  THE  NEW  WORLD 


279 


French  missionaries  and  explorers.  The  P^rench  had 
ahvays  been  interested  in  the  conversion  of  the  Indians 
as  part  of  their  efforts  at  colonization.  Some  of  the 
trading  companies  were  required  to  provide  and  sup- 
port a  priest   at   each    trading  post.     In   one   case    the 


JoLii-rr's  M.M' 

(I'rom  Winsor's  "  Cartier  to  Frontenac  ") 

land  was  granted  jointly  to  the  trading  company  and 
the  Church.  This  work  of  Christianizing  the  heathen 
soon  fell  into  the  hands  of  Jesuit  missionaries. 

These  men,  stirred  by  a  strong  religious  zeal,  shared 
all  the  dangers  and  hardships  of  the  French  explorers 
on  their  expeditions   into   the    unknown   regions  of  the 


28o     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

West,  through  forests  and  swamps  and  over  the  many 
rivers  and  lakes  of  the  St.  Lawrence  Basin. 

One  of  these  missionaries,  Father  Marquette,  stationed 
at  a  Jesuit  mission  on  Lake  Superior,  heard  vague 
rumors  of  a  sf^'^'^t  river  flowdncr  to  the  south.  He  was 
filled  with  a  desire  to  convert  the  Indians  along  its 
banks.  He  succeeded  in  having  himself  added  to  an 
official  exploring  party  which  set  out  in  1673  and  which 
was  headed  by  Louis  Joliet.  Ascending  the  Fox  River 
from  Lake  Michigan,  the  party  carried  their  canoes 
from  its  headwaters  to  the  Wisconsin,  down  which 
they  floated  till  they  came  to  the  Mississippi.  They 
were  sure  at  first  that  the  great  stream  flowed  into  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  They  journeyed  southward  until  they 
reached  the  Arkansas,  where  they  learned  that  the 
Mississippi  entered  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

The  French  now  knew  that  they  could  travel  from 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by 
water,  carrying  their  canoes  only  a  few  miles  over  the 
divide  even  at  low  water.  A  series  of  forts  and  trading 
posts  along  this  line  of  water  communication  would  not 
only  give  the  French  control  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
but  would  prevent  the  English  from  settling  in  the  West. 

La  Salle.  Another  famous  French  explorer  named 
Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  la  Salle,  continued  the  work 
begun  by  Joliet.  La  Salle  belonged  to  a  wealthy  family 
of    Normandy  in    P^ ranee.     When    he  was    twenty-three 


French  Explorations  on  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi 


282      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

years  old  he  came  to  Canada  (1666),  where  he  at  once 
began  a  careful  study  of  the  languages  and  customs 
of  the  Indians.  He  was  particularly  friendly  with  the 
Iroquois,  living  with  them  and  accompanying  them 
on  their  hunting  trips.  Count  Frontenac,  governor  of 
Canada,  soon  made  him  commandant  of  the  new  Fort 
Frontenac,  located  near  the  outlet  of  Lake  Ontario.  La 
Salle  then  went  to  France,  where  he  secured  from  the 
king  a  grant  of  the  territory  surrounding  Fort  F'rontenac, 
which  he  proceeded  to  rebuild  and  develop  as  an  exten- 
sive trading  station.  The  following  year  he  again  went 
to  France  and  secured  from  the  king  the  right  to  trade 
for  furs  and  to  build  forts  in  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
provided  that  the  king  should  be  at  no  expense.  La 
Salle  brought  back  with  him  a  young  lieutenant  named 
Tonty.  They  made  their  way  to  Niagara  Falls,  their 
party  being  accompanied  by  three  friars,  chief  of  whom 
was  the  famous  Father  Hennepin.  Here  the  explor- 
ers built  a  vessel,  navigated  the  lakes  to  Mackinac 
(Michigan),  and  went  to  Green  Bay  (Wisconsin),  where 
a  trading  post  had  been  built  and  where  they  got  many 
furs.  They  then  proceeded  to  Peoria  Lake,  where  they 
built  a  fort.  La  Salle  left  Tonty  in  charge  and  returned 
to  Fort  Frontenac  for  supplies.  Tonty  went  on  to  the 
Illinois  and  built  Fort  St.  Louis  on  a  high  cliff 
called  Starved  Rock.  Disasters  and  desertions  so  re- 
duced  Tonty 's  party  that    he   returned   to   the   post  at 


FRANCE  AND  THE  NEW  WORLD 


283 


Green  Bay.  Meantime  La  Salle,  with  provisions  and 
men,  had  unknowingly  passed  Tonty.  La  Salle,  hearing 
of  Tonty 's  return,  built  Fort  Miami  before  going  back  to 
Fort  Frontenac.  The 
next  year,  1682,  La 
Salle  descended  the 
Mississippi  and  took 
formal  possession  of 
the  Mississippi  Basin 
for  the  king  of  F'' ranee. 
On  his  next  trip  to 
F^-ance  the  king  author- 
ized him  to  establish 
colonies  in  Louisiana, 
the  name  La  Salle  had 
given  to  the  Mississippi 
Valley.  With  untiring 
energy  La  Salle  tried 
to  establish  a  colony 
at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi.  Quarrels 
with  the  captain  of 
the  largest  vessel,  the 

wrecking  of  two  others,  and  the  failure  to  locate  the 
Mississippi  discouraged  the  colonists  and  forced  them 
to  land  among  hostile  Lidians.  La  Salle,  with  sixteen 
others,   started   to   reach   Canada  overland,   seeking  for 


La  Sallk  taking  Possession  of 
Louisiana 


284     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

reenforcements.  During  the  journey  La  Salle  was  shot 
from  ambush  by  some  of  his  companions,  and  his  body 
was  stripped  and  left  lying  in  *the  woods.  Thus  ended 
the  career  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  French  explorers, 
who  had  done  much  to  establish  the  power  of  France 
in  America. 

The  French  and  the  Indians.  The  French,  unlike  the 
English,  seem  to  have  been  able  from  the  beginning  to 
get  along  well  with  their  Indian  neighbors.  Probably 
this  was  because  the  English  colonists  engaged  chiefly 
in  agriculture,  which  tended  to  destroy  the  hunting 
grounds  of  the  Indians.  On  the  other  hand,  the  cold 
climate  of  the  north  forced  the  French  to  scatter  them- 
selves widely  over  their  claim  for  the  purpose  of  fur 
trading,  which  could  be  profitable  only  if  the  hunting 
grounds  of  the  Indians  were  not  disturbed.  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  early  in  the  history  of  P>ench  settlement 
Samuel  Champlain,  the  explorer  of  the  Great  Lakes  and 
the  founder  of  Quebec,  together  with  several  of  his 
soldiers,  helped  his  Indian  friends,  the  Algonquins,  to 
defeat  their  enemies,  the  Iroquois.  This  incident  had 
serious  results  after  the  English  made  friends  with  the 
Iroquois  and  furnished  them  with  guns.  The  Indian 
neighbors  of  the  French  were  driven  from  their  homes 
and  hunting  grounds,  the  fur  trade  was  almost  de- 
stroyed, and  the  settlements  themselves  were  raided 
almost  yearly. 


FRANC?:  AND  THE   NEW  WORLD 


285 


In  time,  however,  the  more  friendly  attitude  of  the 
French  traders  brought  about  a  change  in  the  attitude 
of  the  Iroquois.  The  traders  hved  the  same  wild  life  as 
the  Indian  and  fraternized 
with  him,  often  becoming 
members  of  his  tribe,  either 
by  adoption  or  by  marriage. 
71ie  result  was  that  when 
the  final  struggle  came  for 
supremacy  in  America,  the 
Indians  were  generally  to  be 
found  on  the  side  of  the 
French. 

Growth  of  French  power  in 
America.  The  French,  like 
other  people  of  the  time,  be- 
lieved that  if  a  discoverer  or 
explorer  was  the  first  to  find 
a  certain  stream  or  lake,  he 
could  claim  for  his  king  all 
the  land  drained  by  the 
stream  or  by  any  of  its  tribu- 
taries.   This  claim  was  shown 

by  the  erection  of  a  post  bearing  the  coat  of  arms  of 
the  reigning  king.  They  also  made  good  their  claim  to 
land  in  the  New  World  by  the  burial  at  various  places 
of  lead  plates  inscribed  with  a  statement  of  the  claim. 


Lead  Plate  buried  by  a  French 

Explorer  clalmixg  Possession 

OF  the  Land  for  France 


286     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

By  these  means  France  had  estabHshed  her  title  to 
a  vast  territory  in  the  valleys  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  Mississippi.  Her  fur  traders  were,  moreover,  con- 
stantly pushing  farther  into  the  wilderness,  building 
many  small  forts  and  trading  posts  throughout  their 
claim.  France  was  rapidly  securing  such  a  strong  hold 
on  these  two  great  valleys  and  in  the  region  of  the 
Great  Lakes  that  it  soon  would  become  impossible  to 
dislodge  her. 

On  the  other  hand,  w^hile  the  French  w^ere  few  in 
number  and  scattered  over  an  immense  region,  the 
English,  their  great  rivals  for  the  possession  of  North 
America,  were  much  more  numerous  ;  they  had  made 
homes  for  themselves  in  the  New  World  and  they 
had  established  a  group  of  strong  governments  along 
the  Atlantic  coast. 

So  the  vast  domains  of  the  New  World  were  gradu- 
ally divided  among  the  three  great  European  states  of 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  The  Spanish 
were  supreme  in  South  America,  but  in  North  America 
claims  for  territory  were  made  by  the  English  and 
French  explorers  and  settlers,  as  well  as  the  Spanish.^ 
These  claims  were  sometimes  made  for  the  same  terri- 
tory, and  the  conflicts  that  arose  in  this  way  between 
the  rival  claimants  often  grew  into  long  and  bitter 
struggles. 

1  See  Chapter  XVII,  The  New  World. 


FRANCE  AND  THE  NEW  WORLD  287 

Questions,  l-  Why  were  the  countries  of  Europe  afraid  to  have  Spain 
a  powerful  nation  ?  2.  What  have  you  read  about  Charles  V  in  preceding 
chapters  ?  3.  What  can  you  tell  about  knights  ?  4.  Which  part  of  America 
was  the  best  for  settlement,  that  explored  by  Spain  or  that  explored  by 
France  ?  5.  Do  you  know  if  there  are  any  Huguenots  to-day  ?  6.  Can 
you  name  some  cities  that  are  located  where  the  French  explorers  built 
forts  ?  7.  What  parts  of  North  America  do  the  French  own  to-day  ? 
8.  What  parts  of  North  x\merica  were  settled  by  the  Spanish  ? 

References.  Robinson.  Readings  in  European  History,  Vol.  H, 
pp.  15-23  (Francis  I  and  the  Chevalier  Bayard).  Cheyney.  Readings 
in  English  History,  pp.  289-296  (Joan  of  Arc).  Parkman.  Pioneers 
of  France  in  the  New  World.  La  Salle  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Great 
West.    Thwaites.    France  in  America. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

QUEEN  ELIZABETH  OF  ENGLAND 

Queen  Elizabeth.  Henry  VIII.  Appearance,  character,  and  accomplishments 
of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Sir  William  Cecil.  Elizabeth  declared  head  of  the  Church 
in  England.  The  Protestant  religion  established.  Elizabeth's  economy.  Her 
love  of  peace.  Philip  II  of  Spain.  Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots,  and  her  claim 
to  the  English  throne.  Discovery  of  plots  against  Elizabeth's  life,  and  the 
execution  of  Mary   Stuart 

In  1558  Elizabeth,  one  of  the  greatest  queens  of  history, 
ascended  the  throne  of  England.  Although  she  became 
queen  when  she  was  only  twenty-five,  she  had  many  diffi- 
cult questions  of  government  to  settle.  Chief  among  these 
were  matters  of  religion.  Before  we  go  on  to  these  ques- 
tions wc  will  consider  for  a  little  the  reign  of  Elizabeth's 
father,  the  famous  King  Henry  VIII,  for  he  had  much 
to  do  with  the  changes  that  took  place  in  England  in 
religious  matters  at  this  time. 

Section  50.    Henry  VIII 

Henry  VIII  as  head  of  the  Church  in  England.  In  Chap- 
ter XIII  we  spoke  of  the  great  power  of  the  Pope  and 
of  the  officials  subject  to  him.  Henry  VIII  was  the  first 
English  king  to  succeed  in  defying  him.    He  was  a  proud, 

strong-willed  man,  and  when  the  Pope  refused  to  grant 

288 


QUEEN  ELIZABETH  OF  ENGLAND 


289 


his  request  for  a  divorce  from  the  queen,  he  acted  in 
direct  disobedience  to  his  commands,  and,  more  than 
that,  declared  himself  to  be  the  head  of  the  Church  in 
England  instead  of  the  Pope. 

Having  made  himself  head  of  the  English  Church, 
Henry  VHI  took  another  step  and  closed  the  monas- 
teries.    He   was    an    extravagant,    pleasure-loving    king 


-  If  i,4t:.  - 


The  Ruins  of  Melrose  Abbey 

and  was  often  in  need  of  money  for  his  pleasures.  The 
larger  monasteries  were  very  wealthy.  Their  lands  cov- 
ered one  fifth  of  all  England  and  they  had  stores  of  gold 
plate  and  jewels.  King  Henry  took  possession  of  their 
treasure  to  fill  his  own  chests,  and  sold  the  lovely  stained 
glass  of  the  churches,  the  stone  carvings,  and  even  the 
lead  from  the  roofs.  The  bells  were  melted  and  made 
into  cannon,  and  the  shrines  of  the  saints  stripped  of 
their  gold  and  silver. 


290     LXTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

The  Protestant  revolt.  The  hostility  of  Henry  VIII 
to  some  of  the  customs  and  privileges  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  which  he  showed  by  breaking  off  all  connection 
with  the  Pope,  by  making  himself  head  of  the  Church  in 
England,  and  by  closing  the  monasteries,  was  a  feeling 
shared  by  many  people  of  his  time.  In  Germany  a  revolt 
against  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  had  been  spreading 
rapidly.  This  revolt  was  led  by  a  German  monk  named 
Martin  Luther.  Great  numbers  of  German  people  joined 
him  and  left  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  to  which,  as  we 
know,  every  one  in  western  Europe  at  that  time  belonged. 
This  revolt  spread  into  Switzerland,  Holland,  and  France, 
and  those  who  joined  it  were  called  Protestants. 

Henrv's  dauo^hter,  Oueen  ]\Iarv,  was  an  ardent  Roman 
Catholic,  and  when  she  came  to  the  throne  she  did  her  best 
to  restore  the  power  that  her  father  had  taken  away  from 
the  Pope.  She  tried,  too,  in  every  possible  way,  to  get  rid  of 
Protestantism  and  even  executed  manv  who  had  been  con- 
verted to  it.  But  the  new  religion  spread  among  the  Eng- 
lish, nevertheless,  and  under  the  rule  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
it  continued  to  grow,  for  she  herself  sympathized  with  it. 

Section  51.    Queen  Elizabeth 

Character,  appearance,  and  accomplishments  of  Elizabeth. 

We  have  numberless  descriptions  of  "  Good  Queen  Bess," 
as  Queen  Elizabeth  came  to  be  called,  and  so  many  of 
her  sayings  have  been  handed  down  that  we  can  piece 


Pope  Julils  II  (i 441 -13 13; 
(From  a  painting  by  Raphael) 


291 


292      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


out  a  very  fair  picture  of  her.  She  was  always  a  person  of 
high  spirits,  and  when  she  was  still  "  the  Lady  Elizabeth," 
a  girl  living  a  secluded  life  in  the  country,  with  only  a 

governess  and  a  few 
servants  about  her, 
she  attracted  no  little 
attention  by  the  ad- 
ventures into  which 
her  lively  disposition 
led  her.  Later,  how- 
ever, she  learned  to 
curb  her  wild  spirits, 
so  that  from  a  reck- 
less girl  she  grew  in- 
to an  unusually  self- 
controlled  woman. 
Still  her  liveliness 
of  disposition  and 
quickness  of  temper 
continued  to  be  dis- 
played often  enough, 
but  seldom  without 
good  reason  and  very  often  to  good  effect. 

In  appearance  she  was  tall,  with  an  elegant  figure  and 
commanding  air.  Her  hair,  golden-red  and  waving  back 
from  her  high  forehead,  was  her  especial  pride.  Her  eyes 
were  fine,  dark,  and  piercing.    Her  hands  were  unusually 


Queen  Elizabeth 


OUEEN  ELIZABETH  OF  ENGLAND 


293 


delicate  and  beautiful,  and  she  took  pains  to  call  attention 
to  them  in  every  way  possible  —  by  playing  with  her 
rings  and  by  frequent  gestures.  Her  vanity  displayed 
itself,  also,  in  the  countless  splendid  gowns  with  which  her 
wardrobe  was  filled  and  in  her  constant  change  of  dress. 

In  her  vanity,  her  good-natured  yet  imperious  behavior 
toward  her  people,  and  her  love  of  popularity  she  was 
like  her  father,  Henry  VIII,  and  like  him  too  in  her  love 
of  learning.  Her  education  was  an  excellent  one.  Even 
to-day  she  might  well 
put  a  college  graduate 
to  shame  by  her  knowl- 
edge of  languages. 
Roger  Ascham,  one  of 
the  finest  scholars  of 
those  times,  was  one  of  her  tutors  when  she  was  a  girl. 
In  a  letter  written  some  time  afterwards  he  declared  that, 
although  there  were  many  wise  ladies  of  that  da}',  the 
brightest  star  among  them  all  was  his  illustrious  Lady 
Elizabeth.  French  and  Italian  she  spoke  as  well  as  Eng- 
lish, and  she  often  talked  to  him  readily  and  well  in  Latin, 
and  moderately  so  in  Greek.  He  tells  of  an  occasion 
w^hen  she  entertained  three  foreign  ambassadors  at  one 
time,  addressing  each  in  turn  in  a  different  language, 
Italian,   French,  and   Latin,  with  ease  and  fluency. 

To  help  her  in  her  great  task  of  government  F^lizabeth 
selected  Sir  William  Cecil  as  her  prime  minister  and 


OuEEN  Elizabeth's  Autograph 


294     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

chief  adviser.  This  act  alone,  if  we  knew  of  no  other, 
would  prove  how  keen  w^as  her  judgment.  Sir  William 
Cecil,  afterwards  given  the  title  of  Lord  Burleigh,  was 
not  a  clever  courtier,  skilled  in  the  flattery  and  repartee 
that  delighted  Elizabeth's  heart,  but  he  had  what  she 
valued  far  more  w4ien  it  came  to  matters  of  state  —  he  had 
the  mind  of  a  statesman,  wise  and  far-seeing.  He  was  a 
Protestant,  too,  as  were  all  the  officials  wiiom  the  new 
queen  appointed. 

Reforms  made  by  Elizabeth.  With  this  body  of  advisers 
Elizabeth  began  the  reforms  that  seemed  to  her  most 
needed. 

The  first  matter  to  be  attended  to  was  the  settlement 
of  the  question  of  religion.  Every  one  was  anxiously 
waiting  to  learn  what  the  new  monarch's  course  would 
be  in  this  respect.  So  among  the  first  measures  that 
Parliament  passed  w^as  one  which  set  aside  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Pope  in  England,  and  made  Elizabeth  the 
head  of  the  English  Church.  A  form  of  Protestant- 
ism was  made  the  state  religion,  and  every  one  in  the 
kingdom  was  forced  to  accept  it. 

The  Catholics,  of  course,  were  not  pleased  with  the 
new  laws.  Some  Protestants,  too,  found  fault  with  them. 
These  latter  were  called  "  Puritans  "  because  they  wanted 
a  purer  form  of  religion,  entirely  free  from  any  of  the 
Catholic  forms.  But  the  majority  of  Elizabeth's  subjects 
were  satisfied  with  the  religion  she  established. 


QUEEN  ELIZABETH  OF  ENGLAND  295 

Elizabeth  then  gave  her  mind  to  other  reforms  and 
changes.  She  had  found  the  country  sadly  in  debt  when 
she  came  to  the  throne,  and  she  resolved  that  in  the  future 
there  should  be  no  unnecessary  spending  of  money.  No 
one  knew  better  than  she  how  to  be  economical  and 
prudent.  Her  rich  gowns  and  jewels  and  the  festivities 
of  her  court  of  course  cost  a  great  deal,  but  at  the  same 
time  she  showed  her  thrifty  spirit  in  the  ordering  of  her 
general  household  expenses.  She  saved  much,  too,  by 
making  visits,  with  all  her  court,  to  the  manors  and 
castles  of  her  wealthy  subjects,  where  she  was  enter- 
tained sometimes  for  weeks  together.  To  further  reduce 
expenses  and  increase  the  country's  resources  she  tried 
to  avoid  all  war  and  to  make  the  most  of  the  manufac- 
tures and  trade  of  England. 

Elizabeth  and  the  Catholic  monarchs,  Philip  II  and  Mary- 
Queen  of  Scots.  In  avoiding  war  Elizabeth's  success  was 
remarkable.  The  chief  enemies  that  she  had  to  fear 
abroad  were  France  and  Spain.  Spain  was  under  the 
rule  of  Philip  II,  a  monarch  who  had  the  deepest  interest 
in  spreading  the  Catholic  religion  and  in  checking  the 
growth  of  Protestantism.  He  was  greatly  distressed  by 
letters  from  his  ambassador  in  England  showing  how 
seriously  the  cause  of  Catholicism  was  suffering  under 
Elizabeth.  ''It  gives  me  great  trouble  every  time  I  write 
to  your  Majesty,"  wrote  the  ambassador,  "  not  to  be  able 
to   send   more    pleasing    intelligence,   but   what    can   be 


196     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


expected  from  a  country  governed  by  a  queen,  and  she  a 
young  lass,  who,  although  sharp,  is  without  prudence  and 
is  every  day  standing  up  against  religion  more  openly. 
The  kingdom  is  entirely  in  the  hands  of  young  folks, 
heretics,  and  traitors."    The  whole  of  Elizabeth's  reign 

was  troubled  by  Philip's 
efforts  to  restore  the  old 
Catholic  faith  in  England, 
but  so  skillful  were  she 
and  her  ministers  in  their 
management  of  relations 
with  him  that  only  once 
did  the  country  actually 
come  to  war  with  Spain. 
The  greatest  danger 
from  France  lay  in  the 
support  that  the  French, 
who  were  allies  of  the 
Scotch,  might  give  to 
Mary  Stuart,  the  queen 
of  Scotland.  Mary  Stuart,  a  princess  of  surpassing 
charm  and  spirit,  was  a  cousin  of  Elizabeth.  This  rela- 
tionship gave  her  a  claim  to  the  English  throne,  and 
as  she  was  an  ardent  Catholic  she  had  many  followers 
of  that  faith  in  England,  as  well  as  in  Scotland  and 
on  the  Continent,  who  would  gladly  have  seen  her  in 
Elizabeth's  place. 


Mary  Queen  of  Scots 


QUEEN  ELIZABETH   OF  ENGLAND  297 

F^or  more  than  twenty-five  years  there  hung  over  Eliza- 
beth's head  the  possibility  of  being  dethroned  and  even 
assassinated  by  the  supporters  of  this  beautiful  and  fas- 
cinating Queen  of  Scots.  Even  after  Mary  fell  into 
Elizabeth's  power  and  was  held  a  prisoner  for  almost 
twenty  years  in  one  English  castle  after  another,  her 
scheming  against  the  English  queen  did  not  cease.  Plot 
after  plot  was  uncovered  during  these  years.  In  some  of 
these  plots  even  Philip  II  was  involved. 

At  last  a  plot  to  murder  Queen  Elizabeth  and  to  make 
Mary  Stuart  queen  of  England  was  laid  bare.  Letters 
had  been  sent  to  and  fro  in  regard  to  it  and  some  of 
these  were  found  to  have  been  written  by  Mary  herself. 
It  seemed  plain  to  Elizabeth  and  her  advisers  that  she 
was  guilty  of  high  treason,  and  she  was  at  last  brought 
to  trial  by  the  queen's  ministers  and  convicted  of  plotting 
her  murder.  Elizabeth  hesitated  long  before  she  -could 
decide  to  condemn  her  cousin  to  a  traitor's  death,  but 
she  finally  ordered  the  execution. 

Queen  Mary  was  at  Fotheringay  Castle  when  the 
black-garbed  envoy  from  London,  the  bearer  of  the  death 
warrant,  brought  the  final  decision  from  the  English 
court ;  and  in  the  great  hall  at  Fotheringay  she  mounted 
the  scaffold  that  had  been  erected  there  and,  with  the 
undaunted  spirit  and  gracious  sweetness  that  had  never 
left  her,  laid  her  head  on  the  block  amid  the  tears  and 
despair  of  her  faithful  and  devoted  attendants. 


298      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

Questions,  l.  How  were  noblemen  executed  who  were  sentenced 
to  death  in  England  ?  2.  Do  you  know  what  kind  of  criminals  were 
burned  and  what  kind  hanged  ?  3.  Why  was  Elizabeth  called  "  Good 
Queen  Bess  "  ? 

References.  Cheyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  361-362 
(description  of  Elizabeth);  pp.  378-380  (Elizabeth's  accomplishments); 
pp.  408-412  (characteristics  of  Queen  Elizabeth).  Robinson.  Readings 
in  European  History,  Vol.  II,  pp.  186-187  (Mary  Queen  of  Scots  and 
Elizabeth);  pp.  191-193  (description  of  Elizabeth).  Bates  and  Coman. 
English  History  Told  by  English  Poets,  p.  283  (Gloriana) ;  p.  285  (Lament 
of  the  Queen  of  Scots). 


CHAPTER  XX 

ELIZABETH  AND  PHILIP  II 

Philip   II   and  the    Netherlands.     Revolt  of   the    Netherlands.     William   of 

Orange.    Philip  II  prepares  the  Invincible  Armada.    His  reasons  for  wishing 

to  make  war  upon  England.    The  defeat  of  the  Armada 

Section  52.    PiiiiJi'  II  of  Spain  and  the  Netherlands 

Queen  Elizabeth  was  not  able  to  preserve  peace  with 
her  neighbors  at  all  times,  much  as  she  wished  it.  In  the 
latter  years  of  her  reign  she  was  forced  into  a  war  with 
Philip  II  of  Spain. 

Philip  II  of  Spain.  Perhaps  the  chief  thing  to  be  borne 
in  mind,  when  one  thinks  of  Philip  II,  is  his  intense 
belief  in  the  truth  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  and  his 
never- flagging  zeal  in  supporting  its  cause.  In  some  of 
the  countries  of  his  great  realm  the  measures  that  he 
took  to  drive  out  Protestantism  were  severe  and  unre- 
lenting beyond  words.  Of  all  his  possessions  the  Nether- 
lands felt  most  the  heaviness  of  his  hand,  for  it  was 
there  that  the  Protestants  made  their  strongest  fight 
for  liberty  of  belief. 

Philip  had  inherited  from  his  father,  the  famous  Em- 
peror Charles  V,  the  most  extensive  and  the  wealthiest 

dominion  in   Europe.     It  included  not  only  Spain,  the 

299 


300     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


place  of  his  birth  and  his  home,  but  all  the  Spanish  col- 
onies in  America,  as  well  as  portions  of  Italy  and  those 
countries  that  we  now  know  as   Holland  and  Belgium. 

The  last  two  countries 
were  united  in  those  times 
under  the  name  of  the 
Spanish  Netherlands,  or 
Lowlands.  To  help  him 
in  the  management  of  this 
great  realm  he  had  the 
best-disciplined  armies,  as 
well  as  the  most  skillful 
commanders  of  his  day. 
The  Netherlands.  The 
Netherlands  are  rightly 
named,  for  they  are  indeed 
low  lands.  Bordering  on 
the  German  ocean,  just 
across  from  England,  this 
stretch  of  country  lies  so 
low  and  so  level  that  the 
sea  is  ever  threatening  to 
sweep  over  portions  of  it. 
From  earliest  times  the  sturdy,  venturesome  inhabitants 
had  to  build  dikes  to  keep  the  ocean  floods  from  over- 
whelming their  homes  and  fields ;  and  the  Dutch  of  to- 
day still  build  and  keep  in  repair  these  strong  walls. 


Philip  II 
(From  a  painting  by  Titian) 


ELIZABETH  AND  PHILIP  II  301 

At  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Netherlands  were  busy^  independent,  energetic 
people,  carrying  on  a  variety  of  industries  both  in  their 
thriving  towns  and  in  the  country.  In  the  north,  the 
part  that  is  now  Holland,  were  the  towns  of  Amsterdam, 
Rotterdam,  Leyden,  and  Haarlem,  where  fine  linen  and 
tapestry  were  woven.  On  the  farms  quantities  of  butter 
and  cheese  were  produced  for  the  market.  In  the  south, 
in  Belgium  (or  Flanders,  as  it  was  then  named),  were  the 
towns  of  Brussels,  Antwerp,  Bruges,  and  Ghent,  famous 
for  their  rich  cloth  and  silks. 

Revolt  of  the  Netherlands  and  William  of  Orange.  Even 
during  the  reign  of  Charles  V  there  had  been  signs  of  re- 
volt in  the  Netherlands,  arising  from  a  widespread  interest 
in  the  religion  of  the  reformers,  and  thousands  of  heretics 
had  been  executed  by  the  emperor  in  the  hope  of  prevent- 
ing Protestantism  from  getting  any  hold  in  the  country. 
When  Philip  came  to  the  throne  and  found  that  the  new 
religion  was  still  alive  and  growing,  he  determined  to  em- 
ploy every  means  at  his  command  to  stamp  it  out  forever. 

Following  the  practice  of  his  father,  he  had  notices 
posted  in  every  city  forbidding  the  printing,  selling, 
or  distributing,  in  any  way,  of  books  WTitten  by  Martin 
Luther  or  other  heretics.  Any  persons  found  breaking 
these  laws  were  to  suffer  the  severest  punishment. 

When  imprisonment  and  punishment  proved  useless, 
Philip  sent  from  Spain  his  most  able  and  at  the  same 


302     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

time  most  merciless  general,  the  Duke  of  Alva,  with 
orders  to  put  an  end,  once  for  all,  to  the  revolt  of  his 
subjects  in  the  Netherlands.  Alva's  cruelty  was  so  well 
known  that  many  Protestants  fled  from  the  country  at 
news  of  his  coming,  some  to  England,  some  to  Germany. 
To  Germany,  among  others,  went  William,  Prince  of 
Orange,-^  afterwards  to  become  the  great  national  hero 
of  the  Netherlands. 

William  of  Orange  soon  returned  to  Holland,  however, 
and  a  little  army  of  patriots  gathered  around  him  to  re- 
sist the  Spanish  troops.  It  was  defeated  again  and  again 
in  its  encounters  with  the  enemy,  but  a  handful  always 
escaped  to  rally  round  their  leader  and  defy  Alva's  forces 
elsewhere.  On  sea,  too,  the  rebels  made  constant  trouble 
for  Philip  by  capturing  Spanish  ships  and  selling  them 
to  England. 

For  years  this  sort  of  skirmishing  was  kept  up.  Wil- 
liam the  Silent  sought  the  aid  of  Queen  Elizabeth  and 
received  loans  of  money  from  her  for  the  support  of  his 
followers.  Later,  more  to  vex  Spain  than  to  aid  the 
Netherlands,  she  sent  over  soldiers  and  commanders 
to  fight  for  the  cause  of  the  Protestants. 

One  of  the  leaders  of  this  expedition  was  that  fine 
young  English  nobleman  and  poet.  Sir  Philip  Sidney^ 
the  pattern  of  all  knightly  virtues,  whom  Elizabeth  called 
''  the  jewel  of  her  times,"  and  who,  as  he  lay  dying  on 

1  Also  called  William  the  Silent. 


ELIZABETH  AND  PHILIP  II  303 

a  battlefield  in  Holland,  handed  his  cup  of  water  to  a 
wounded  soldier  near  him,  saying,  "  Thy  need  is  greater 
than  mine." 

At  last,  after  twenty  years  of  desperate  toil  and  struggle 
for  the  cause,  William  of  Orange  was  struck  down  by  an 
assassin,  and  the  people  whom  he  had  so  long  led  and 
encouraged  were  left  to  finish  their  battle  for  freedom 
without  him.  The  ten  southern  provinces  soon  gave  up 
the  struggle  against  Philip  and  were  received  back  into 
Spanish  favor;  but  the  seven  northern  ones,  after  long 
years  of  struggle,  succeeded  in  gaining  their  liberty  and 
independence,  and  became  what  is  now  Holland,  the 
kingdom  of  the   Dutch. 

Section  53.   Philip  and  England 

Philip  II,  as  has  been  said,  did  not  love  England  or 
the  English.  We  have  seen  how  he  had  encouraged  plots 
against  Queen  Elizabeth  in  favor  of  Mary  Stuart,  the 
Scottish  queen.  It  may  be  imagined,  then,  how  he  felt 
when  he  found  out  that  his  rebellious  subjects  in  the 
Netherlands  had  been  aided  in  their  revolt  by  the  little 
island  that  was  already  so  hateful  to  him. 

Nor  was  this  all.  His  galleons  and  men-of-war,  return- 
ing from  the  Spanish-American  possessions  loaded  with 
treasure,  were  being  constantly  attacked  by  English  sea- 
men. Sometimes  these  attacks  only  delayed  his  vessels ; 
sometimes,  however,  the  ships  and  their  crews  suffered 


304     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

serious  injury;  and  sometimes  their  entire  cargo  was 
carried  off.  Rich  Spanish  towns,  too,  in  the  New  World 
had  been  plundered  by  a  daring  English  mariner,  Francis 
Drake,  of  whose  exploits  we  shall  hear  in  the  next  chap- 
ter. There  was  every  possible  reason  in  Philip's  eyes 
why  Spain  should  punish  England  for  these  acts.  By 
conquering  the  English  he  could,  at  one  and  the  same 
time,  revenge  himself  for  the  injuries  they  had  done 
him  and  carry  out  his  desire  to  make  England  once 
more  a  Catholic  country. 

The  Spanish  Armada.  It  was  early  in  the  year  1588 
that  the  English  people  first  became  aware  of  Philip's 
intentions  toward  them.  It  was  reported  throughout  the 
country  that  the  great  fleet  of  ships,  which  for  three 
years  the  Spanish  king  had  been  collecting,  was  now 
receiving  the  finishing  touches  and  preparing  to  sail, 
not  against  the  rebellious  Netherlands,  as  every  one 
had  supposed,  but  against  England  itself. 

A  hundred  and  thirty  vessels  made  up  this  great  fleet. 
There  were  warships,  galleons,  frigates,  and  transports, 
armed  with  cannon  and  manned  with  at  least  twenty- 
eight  thousand  sailors  and  soldiers.  The  Spaniards  were 
exceedingly  proud  of  it.  They  called  it  the  Invincible 
Armada,^  and  expected  nothing  less  than  that  as  soon 
as  it  should  appear  in  the  Channel  every  little  English 
man-of-war  would  fall  back  for  safety  into  the  nearest 

^  "  Armada  "  means  a  fleet  of  warships. 


ELIZABETH  AND  PHILIP  II  305 

harbor,  the  ill-trained  bands  of  English  militia  would 
yield  to  the  demands  of  the  Spanish  commanders,  and 
England  would  be  Philip's  for  the  asking. 

The  news  of  the  approach  of  the  great  fleet  roused 
no  little  terror  among  the  English.  Sir  Francis  Drake 
straightway  sailed  for  Spain  with  a  fleet  of  thirty  vessels 
and  devoted  himself  to  making  attacks  along  the  coast, 
burning  the  supplies  that  the  Spaniards  had  collected, 
and  even  entering  the  harbor  at  Cadiz  and  destroying 
some  large  ships  there.  This  he  called  "  singeing  the 
Spanish  king's  beard." 

At  home  bands  of  yeomen  were  gathering  under  the 
various  leaders  and  moving  toward  London  to  join  the 
main  army.  Armed  men  from  all  the  country  round 
guarded  the  chief  harbors  of  the  south  as  well  as  possible 
against  attacks  from  the  sea.  Catholic  and  Protestant 
lords  alike  forgot  their  religious  differences  and  hurried 
to  the  aid  of  the  queen  with  ships  and  men.  So  by  the 
time  that  the  Invincible  Armada  was  ready  to  set  forth 
from  Spain,  England  was  well  prepared  to  defend  herself, 
both  by  land  and  by  sea. 

It  was  on  a  summer  day  in  1588  that  the  Spanish 
ships,  formed  in  a  crescent  and  moving  majestically  up 
the  Channel  with  all  their  ensigns  floating  to  the  breeze, 
were  first  sighted  by  the  anxious  watchers  on  the  look- 
out along  the  English  coast.  The  news  was  carried  by 
messengers  and  flashed  by  beacon  fires  over  the  country. 


3o6     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

and  the  fleet  of  ships  in  waiting  at  Plymouth  at  once 
prepared  to  sail  out  after  the  enemy. 

The  English  fleet  was  a  poor  thing,  in  the  size  and 
number  of  its  ships,  compared  with  that  of  the  Spaniards. 
There  were  but  eighty  ships  in  all,  and  of  the  thirty 
vessels  that  formed  the  main  body  of  the  fleet  not  more 
than  four  were  equal  in  size  even  to  the  smallest  of  the 
towering  Spanish  galleons. 

In  two  respects,  however,  the  English  fleet  was  over- 
whelmingly superior  to  the  Spanish  Armada.  Its  small 
vessels  could  move  far  more  easily  and  rapidly  than  the 
clumsy  Spanish  ships,  and  its  commander  was  supported 
by  captains  and  seamen  who  could  not  be  surpassed, 
nor  even  equaled,  in  a  knowledge  of  sea  craft  and  in  a 
splendid  reckless  courage  that  only  rose  higher  as  danger 
increased.  The  first  of  them  all  in  daring  and  skill  was 
Drake,  and  close  seconds  were  the  sea  captains  Hawkins 
and  Frobisher.  All  had  sailed  in  unknown  seas  and 
faced  dangers  of  every  kind,  and  all  now  welcomed  with 
joy  this  chance  to  meet  the  Spanish  forces  in  open  war. 

Defeat  of  the  Invincible  Armada.  For  more  than  a  week 
this  little  fleet,  under  its  brave  commanders,  followed  the 
ponderous  galleons,  attacking  and  inflicting  serious  injury 
on  them,  but  easily  escaping  when  attacked  itself.  Many 
a  great  Spanish  ship  was  sunk,  or  so  disabled  that  it  was 
forced  to  retreat  to  shore,  and  at  least  four  thousand 
Spaniards  were  slain. 


ELIZABETH  AND  PHILIP  II  307 

So  sharp  grew  the  fight  and  so  incessant  were  the  at- 
tacks of  the  Enghsh  that  the  Armada  was  unable  to  take 
on  the  Spanish  army  waiting  for  it  in  Flanders.  The 
commanders  became  utterly  disheartened,  and  soon  had 
but  one  desire  left  —  to  get  back  to  their  own  country.  A 
return  through  the  Channel  in  the  face  of  the  enemy 
was  impossible.  Their  only  course  was  to  sail  north 
around  Scotland  and  the  Orkney  Islands,  then  south 
past   Ireland,  and  so  on  to  Spain. 

Thus  it  was  that  only  a  little  more  than  ten  days  after 
they  had  so  exultantly  entered  the  English  Channel  the 
Spaniards,  in  utter  defeat  and  despair,  turned  their  course 
northward  to  seek  escape.  A  heavy  gale  drove  them 
forward,  while  Drake  and  his  ships  followed  in  close  pur- 
suit. On  went  the  wretched,  disabled  vessels  toward  the 
Orkney  Islands.  Here  they  were  overtaken  by  so  fierce 
a  tempest  that  many  a  galleon  with  its  officers  and  men 
went  down  on  the  bleak  rocks.  So,  too,  on  the  Irish 
coast  ships  were  wrecked  and  thousands  of  men  were 
lost.  Of  all  the  Invincible  Armada  that  had  left  Spain  so 
sure  of  easy  victory,  there  were  but  fifty  ships  left  to  re- 
turn, and  of  the  twenty-eight  thousand  Spanish  soldiers 
and  sailors  not  a  third  had  survived  the  disaster. 

With  the  destruction  of  his  splendid  Armada  Philip's 
hopes  of  conquering  England  and  restoring  it  to  the 
Catholic  Church  vanished  utterly.  As  we  have  seen, 
he  had  failed  also  to  prevent  Protestantism  from  being 


3o8     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

established  in  Holland,  and  before  his  death  he  was  forced 
to  see  the  new  religion  take  the  place  of  Catholicism  in 
Germany  and  Switzerland,  and  even  make  great  headway 
in  France,  where  its  followers,  often  fiercely  persecuted, 
were  known  as  Huguenots. 

English  trade.  For  England  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish 
Armada  meant  more  than  a  great  victory.  From  that 
time  the  English  had  little  to  fear  from  Spain.  English 
trading  ships,  carrying  fine  cloth  and  tin  to  sell  in  foreign 
ports,  went  boldly  out  on  their  voyages,  sailing  through 
the  Mediterranean  Sea  for  silks,  spices,  and  jewels,  and 
down  along  the  African  coast  for  gold  and  ivory,  or  to 
northern  seas  for  Russian  furs.  England  began  to  take 
a  foremost  place  in  the  commerce  of  Europe ;  and  close 
upon  these  trading  ventures  followed  many  exploring 
and  colonizing  voyages  to  America. 

Questions,  l.  At  the  mouth  of  what  great  river  does  Holland  lie? 
2.  Who  is  the  present  ruler  of  Holland  ? 

References.  Cheyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  404-408 
(the  fight  with  the  Armada);  pp.  412-414  (letter  to  Sir  Philip  Sidney 
from  his  father).  Robinson.  Readings  in  European  History,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  189-191  (a  letter  of  Sir  John  Hawkins  about  the  Armada);  pp. 
1 68-1 7 1  (Philip  II  of  Spain);  pp.  1 71-174  (the  Netherlands  and  their 
revolt);  pp.  174-179  (Philip  and  William  the  Silent).  Bates  and  Coman. 
English  History  Told  by  English  Poets,  p.  288  (The  Armada). 


CHAPTER    XXI 

THE  ELIZABETHAN  AGE 

English  seamen  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth.    Sir  John  Hawkins's  slave-trading 

voyages.    Sir  Francis  Drake's  voyage  around  the  world  and  his  attacks  on 

Spanish   towns  and  vessels.     Sir  Walter   Raleigh,     Sir   Humphrey   Gilbert. 

Life  in  England.    The  Elizabethan  Age 

Section  54.    English  Seamen 

The  famous  story  of  England's  defeat  of  the  Invincible 
Armada,  the  struggle  of  the  Netherlands  against  Spain, 
and  the  tale  of  the  rivalry  of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots  will  always  be  full  of  thrilling  interest  to 
the  w^orld  ;  but  of  still  deeper  interest  to  American  people 
are  the  adventures  of  the  English  mariners  of  that  time. 
The  roving  spirit  of  their  early  Viking  ancestors  showed 
itself  in  the  daring  courage  that  carried  these  English 
seamen,  nothing  daunted  by  danger,  disease,  and  failure, 
over  leagues  of  unknown  seas  in  search  of  distant  lands. 
The  list  of  them  is  long — Drake,  Frobisher,  Hawkins, 
Gilbert,  Raleigh,  and  many  more — whose  real  homes  were 
the  foam-washed  decks  of  their  sea-tossed  vessels  rather 
than  the  quiet  village  streets  and  green  fields  of  England. 

We  have  seen  how  Spain  and  Portugal,  in  the  early 

days,  had  taken  the  lead  in  exploration.    For  a  long  time 

309 


3IO     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  English  people  made  no  serious  attempt  to  secure 
a  share  in  the  newly  discovered  countries.  Spain,  more- 
over, guarded  her  possessions  in  the  New  World  by 
forbidding  any  other  nation  to  trade  at  her  ports  in  the 
West  Indies  or  elsewhere  on  the  new  continent.  So 
none  but  Spanish  vessels  could  safely  enter  those  harbors. 

The  only  early  voyages  of  discovery  of  any  importance 
under  the  English  flag  were  those  of  John  Cabot  and 
his  sons,"^  seventy  years  before  the  time  of  Elizabeth. 
Cabot  explored  the  coast  of  North  America  from  Labra- 
dor to  Virginia,  believing  all  the  time  that  he  had  reached 
Asia  and  had  discovered  the  way  to  the  treasures  of  the 
East  which  Marco  Polo  had  described.  He  had  no  idea 
that  the  land  he  had  found  was  a  part  of  the  same  conti- 
nent of  which  the  Spanish  had  taken  possession.  He 
brought  back  nothing  that  tempted  any  one  else  to 
make  a  voyage  to  those  northern  regions ;  so  instead  of 
sailing  across  the  Atlantic,  English  seamen  of  the  early 
days  of  discovery  went  trading  in  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  and  sometimes  down  the  coast  of  Africa.  It  was 
not  until  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  that  they  made 
bolder  ventures. 

Sir  John  Hawkins.  In  the  little  village  of  Plymouth, 
in  the  southwestern  part  of  England,  there  lived  a  family 
by  the  name  of  Hawkins.  The  father  was  a  well-known 
trader  who  had  made  as  many  as  three  trips  to  Brazil, 

1  See  p.  234. 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  AGE 


311 


crossing  from  Africa  to  exchange  negroes  captured  on  the 
African  coast  for  sugar  and  other  products.  His  son,  who 
was  to  become  the  famous  Sir  John  Hawkins  of  Queen 
EHzabeth's  reign,  heard  many  a  tale  from  his  father  of 
his  adventures  in  Africa,  and  when  he  was  but  a  lad  he 
resolved  that  he  too  would  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  sea. 


J 

IM 

A  ' 

1^ 

IHII^I|lll  nil  ii  rpJIIJPW 

? 

^ 

i 

I^mISI^^b  M^^^B^V^ 

1 

1 

g 

^3^1 

w^ 

ig|^^.^^^^ 

Si 

m 

English  Seaman's  Home  at  Clovelly 


He  made  his  first  voyage  on  an  English  trading  ship 
that  sailed  to  Spain  and  the  Canary  Islands.  Here  he 
heard  much  about  the  Spanish  possessions  in  the  New 
World  from  the  sailors  on  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
ships  that  came  into  the  same  harbors.  Among  other 
things  he  learned  that  the  natives  of  the  West  Indies 


312      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

were  rapidly  dying  under  the  hardships  they  suffered 
from  their  Spanish  masters,  and  that  the  gold  and  silver 
mines  and  the  great  plantations  would  soon  be  lying 
idle  for  want  of  slaves  to  work  them. 

All  this  made  young  John  Hawkins  resolve  to  brave 
the  danger  of  carrying  a  cargo  of  negroes  to  the  West 
Indies.  Even  though  Spain  allowed  no  foreign  trade  in 
these  lands,  and  though  it  would  mean  the  risk  of  his  life 
to  venture  there,  he  believed  that  the  Spanish  colonists 
were  in  such  pressing  need  that  they  would  disobey 
orders  and  gladly  buy  his  slaves. 

Accordingly  he  interested  some  London  friends  in  his 
project,  and  with  their  help  got  together  a  little  squadron 
of  three  ships,  and  in  the  year  1562  sailed  for  Guinea,  on 
the  coast  of  Africa.  Here  he  stayed  some  time  and  got 
into  his  possession,  partly  by  the  sword  and  partly  by 
other  means,  at  least  three  hundred  negroes.  With  them 
he  sailed  across  the  ocean  and  was  the  first  English 
mariner  to  enter  West  Indian  waters.  He  touched  only 
at  the  smaller  ports,  thinking  there  was  less  risk  in  this, 
and  had  no  difHculty  in  disposing  of  his  negroes  to 
the  eager  colonists.  He  was  always  very  careful,  never 
attempting  more  than  he  could  manage,  and  succeeded 
so  well  in  his  venture  that  he  was  obliged  to  buy  two 
additional  ships  to  carry  back  his  cargo.  Finally  he 
sailed  home  across  the  Atlantic  with  his  five  vessels 
laden  with  hides,  ginger,  sugar,  and  pearls. 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  AGE  313 

When  he  neared  Europe  he  made  his  great  mistake. 
Since  Spain  and  England  were  then  on  friendly  terms  he 
thought  it  safe  to  try  to  dispose  of  some  of  his  cargo  in 
Spain.  Instead  of  buying  his  goods  the  Spanish  authori- 
ties took  possession  of  them  and  threatened  to  do  worse 
if  this  daring  mariner  traded  with  their  colonies  in 
America   again. 

Hawkins  was  not  to  be  discouraged,  however.  He  had 
found  a  trade  that  seemed  to  him  highly  profitable  and 
he  was  resolved  to  go  on  with  it.  His  second  expedition 
was  even  bolder  than  the  first,  and  in  spite  of  the  strict 
orders  of  the  Spanish,  he  managed,  by  persuasion  or  by 
force,  to  get  rid  of  his  wretched  load  of  human  beings 
and  take  on  a  good  cargo  in  exchange  at  a  number  of 
West  Indian  ports. 

This  time  he  returned  to  Europe  by  way  of  the  eastern 
coast  of  what  is  now  the  United  States,  being  the  first 
Englishman  to  sail  the  whole  length  of  those  shores. 
In  an  account  of  the  trip  written  by  one  of  the  voyagers 
who  accompanied  him,  a  description  is  given  of  the 
Indians  of  Florida.  Among  other  things  he  tells  how 
they  tattooed  themselves,  pricking  the  flesh  with  a  thorn 
so  that  it  might  hold  the  color  better.  He  describes 
tobacco,  too,  which  he  saw  for  the  first  time. 

From  this  time  on  Hawkins  and  his  men  became 
more  and  more  venturesome.  They  saw  that  the  heavy 
Spanish  ships  were  not  able  to  overtake   their  lighter, 


314      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

smaller  ones  whenever  a  fight  arose,  nor  were  the  Spanish 
soldiers  and  sailors  so  bold  and  ready  at  attack  and  de- 
fense as  they  themselves.  Hawkins  even  gave  directions 
for  capturing  their  ships,  which  ended  with  the  words: 
"  Serve  God  daily ;  love  one  another ;  preserve  your 
victuals;    beware  of  fire;    and  keep  good  company." 


Houses  of  Parliament,  London 

Many  another  Plymouth  sailor  set  out  from  the  little 
town  to  follow  the  profitable  trade  in  negroes  that 
Hawkins  had  begun.  Year  after  year  they  sailed  the 
seas  like  pirates,  pursuing  Spanish  galleons  laden  with 
treasure,  taking  possession  of  them,  putting  the  captains 
and  men  in  irons,  and  bringing  them  back,  along  with 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  AGE  315 

the  ships  and  treasure,  as  their  prize  to  England.  Queen 
Elizabeth  herself  did  not  discourage  this  lawlessness  and 
only  laughed  when  the  Spanish  ambassador  protested 
against   it. 

Sir  Francis  Drake.  Francis  Drake,  of  whom  we  have 
already  spoken  in  the  account  of  the  defeat  of  the  Invin- 
cible Armada,  was  a  young  relative  of  John  Hawkins, 
and  had  sailed  with  him  on  one  of  his  voyages.  What  he 
learned  from  that  hardy  captain  and  other  slave  traders, 
combined  with  his  own  courage  and  persistence,  made 
him  the  most  renowned  of  English  naval  adventurers. 

On  one  of  his  trips  to  the  New  World  he  had  landed 
on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  had  been  taken  by  natives 
to  the  summit  of  a  great  ridge,  where  there  was  a  huge 
tree  in  which  steps  had  been  cut.  Mounting  these,  he 
gazed  out  upon  a  marvelous  view,  for  in  one  direction  he 
could  see  the  Atlantic  and  in  the  other  the  Pacific.  No 
Englishman  had  ever  before  beheld  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
and  as  Drake  looked  out  over  it  he  prayed  God  to  give 
him  life  and  leave  to  sail  once  upon  its  waters  in  an  Eng- 
lish ship.  To  add  to  his  enthusiasm  for  this  new  venture 
he  learned  that  on  the  western  coast  of  South  America, 
especially  in  the  country  of  Peru,  lay  many  a  port  rich 
in  treasure  and  well  worth  a  brave  captain's  taking. 

In  November  of  the  year  1577  he  set  out  to  accom- 
plish his  great  plan.  He  knew  that  the  Peruvian  towns 
were  unfortified,  for  the  only  entrance  to  them  was  from 


3i6      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  "  South  Sea,"  as  the  Spanish  called  the  southern 
Pacific ;  ^  and  nothing  had  seemed  less  likely  to  the 
Spanish  than  that  an  enemy  would  approach  from  that 
direction,  since  he  would  have  to  make  his  way  all  around 
South  America  and  through  the  difficult  and  dangerous 
Strait  of  Magellan.  But  it  was  just  in  this  way  that 
Drake  and  his  companions  planned  to  go.  Accordingly, 
sixty  years  after  Magellan  had  made  his  famous  voyage 
in  these  seas,  the  English  mariner  followed  the  same 
route   in   his   stout   ship,   the   Pelica^i? 

In  one  of  the  harbors  he  captured  a  great  Spanish  ship 
laden  with  treasure,  and  sacked  the  town,  carrying  off 
even  the  silver  chalice  and  altar  cloth  from  its  little  chapel. 
Several  times  his  party  landed  on  the  way  up  the  coast, 
once  robbing  of  all  his  silver  a  man  they  found  lying 
asleep  on  the  shore ;  again  capturing  from  their  driver 
some  sheep  heavily  loaded  with  the  precious  metal ;  and 
taking  from  many  a  passing  boat  its  cargo. 

At  another  place  they  found  twelve  well-stored  ships. 
These  they  plundered  of  silver,  linen,  and  silks,  and  then 
cut  their  cables  and  set  them  adrift.  Then  they  sailed 
on  toward  Panama  in  pursuit  of  another  ship  of  which 


1  The  whole  Pacific  Ocean  was  sometimes  called  by  this  name..  The  stretch 
of  South  American  coast  along  the  Caribbean  Sea  was  called  the  Spanish  Main. 
Some  writers  of  to-day  give  this  name  to  the  Caribbean  Sea  itself. 

'"^  As  soon  as  Drake  passed  the  Strait  of  Magellan  he  rechristened  his  vessel 
the  Golden  Hind,  which  was  the  crest  of  Sir  Christopher  Hatton,  Lord  Chancellor 
to  Queen  Elizabeth  and  one  of  her  favorite  courtiers. 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  AGE  317 

they  had  heard.  This,  too,  was  robbed  when  it  was 
overtaken,  together  with  several  more  that  they  came 
across  later.  By  this  time  they  had  on  board  such  a  load 
of  gold,  silver,  diamonds,  emeralds,  pearls,  and  other 
treasure  that  it  amounted  to  more  than  a  million  dollars 
in  value,  and  Drake  began  to  consider  the  best  way  of 
returning  to  England. 

If  he  went  back  the  way  he  had  come,  he  ran  every 
risk  of  being  captured  by  the  Spanish.  He  resolved, 
therefore,  to  cross  the  Pacific  as  Magellan  had  done  and, 
passing  by  way  of  the  Moluccas,  to  double  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  sail  up  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  so  reach 
England  from  the  opposite  side  of  the  world.  All  this 
he  accomplished,  and  won  the  fame  of  being  the  first 
English  mariner  to  circumnavigate  the  globe.  The 
records  of  his  trip  show  that  he  landed  on  the  coast 
of  California  on  his  journey,  spent  some  time  with  the 
friendly  Indians  there,  and  set  up  a  brass  tablet  on  the 
spot  where  he  landed,  engraved  with  the  date  and 
Queen  Elizabeth's    name. 

Queen  Elizabeth  was  delighted  with  Drake's  great  feat 
and  with  the  enormous  treasure  he  brought  back.  She 
honored  him  by  a  visit  to  the  Golden  Hind  and  there, 
on  board  his  own  ship,  conferred  the  order  of  knighthood 
on  him.  For  years  afterward  the  hull  of  his  famous  little 
vessel  was  used  as  a  restaurant  in  one  of  the  English 
sea  towns.    Later  a  chair  was  cut  from  its  timbers  and 


3i8     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

presented  to  the  University  of  Oxford,  where  one  may 
see  it  to-day.  As  for  Drake,  of  whom  the  Spaniards  had 
such  a  dread  that  they  called  him  the  "  Dragon,"  he  fol- 
lowed his  buccaneering  career  until  it  brought  him  at 
last  to  his  death  in  the  waters  of  the  West  Indian  seas. 

Fascinating  as  are  the  tales  of  these  Elizabethan  ad- 
venturers, their  energy  and  daring  were  almost  entirely 
devoted  to  what  we  should  now  consider  the  most  crim- 
inal enterprises ;  namely,  piracy  and  trade  in  slaves. 
Nevertheless  they  did  good  service,  not  only  for  Eng- 
land in  her  fight  with  the  Armada  but  also  in  showing 
the  way  across  the  seas  to  later  explorers,  whose  object 
was  the  planting  of  colonies  in  the  New  World.  John 
Hawkins  may  even  have  had  some  thought  of  finding 
a  suitable  spot  where  Englishmen  might  settle  when  he 
coasted  along  the  eastern  shores  of  North  America,  for 
it  was  in  that  region  that  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  another 
Elizabethan  navigator,  picked  out  a  site  for  a  colony. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh  and  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert.  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  was  an  admiral  in  Queen  Elizabeth's 
navy  and  was,  besides,  one  of  her  most  favored  and 
charming  courtiers.  He  first  won  the  queen's  favor,  so 
the  story  goes,  by  his  gallantry;  for  once,  as  she  was 
about  to  cross  the  street  with  her  train  of  attendants  and 
was  hesitating  before  a  muddy  pool,  fearful  lest  it  should 
soil  her  slippers,  Raleigh  hastened  to  the  rescue,  flung 
his   rich  velvet   cloak   over  the    mud,   and    begged    her 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  AGE  319 

to  honor  him  by  making  use  of  it  for  a  carpet  to 
protect  her  royal  feet. 

Whether  or  not  this  tale  is  true,  he  received  many 
honors  and  much  assistance  from  her,  and  made  a  name 
for  himself  in  history  by  his  persistent  efforts  to  establish 
English  colonies  in  newly  discovered  countries,  although 
none  of  his  attempts  was  successful.  At  least  twice  he 
sent  out  bands  of  colonists  to  the  eastern  coast  of  North 
America,  —  which  he  named  Virginia  in  honor  of  the 
"  virgin  queen,"  Elizabeth,  —  but  they  either  became  dis- 
couraged and  returned  or  else  perished,  and  it  remained 
for  another  Englishman  to  establish,  in  1607,  the  first 
permanent  colony  in  Virginia. 

To  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  belongs  also  the  distinction  of 
having  introduced  into  Ireland  and  elsewhere  the  potato, 
which  Drake  was  the  first  to  bring  over  from  America, 
and  which  the  people  of  Ireland,  especially,  have  ever 
since  made  a  large  part  of  their  daily  fare.  Raleigh  also, 
it  is  said,  introduced  into  England  the  use  of  tobacco. 
The  plant  had  already  been  brought  from  America  by 
the  Spaniards. 

Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  a  half  brother  of  Raleigh,  was 
an  adventurous  mariner  who  led  several  expeditions  to 
the  American  continent.  He  firmly  believed  that  a  north- 
west passage  from  England  to  India  and  the  Spice 
Islands  could  be  found.  In  his  attempt  to  discover  it 
he  ran  across  Newfoundland  and  took  possession  of  it  in 


320     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

the  name  of  the  queen.  It  was  on  his  return  from  this 
voyage  that  his  ship  was  wrecked  and  he  went  down  with 
it  and  its  crew,  having  called  out  to  the  companion 
vessel  but  a  short  time  before  the  waves  swept  over 
him  the  hopeful  words,  "  We  are  as  near  to  heaven  by 
sea  as  by  land." 

Section  55.    The  End  of  Elizabeth's  Reign 

Ireland.  A  momentous  event  of  Queen  Elizabeth's 
reign  was  the  suppression  of  the  Irish  rebellion.  Ireland, 
in  ancient  days,  was  famous  for  the  learning  of  its  monks, 
and  numbers  of  them  had  been  sent  out  as  missionaries 
to  teach  Christianity  in  other  countries.  Throughout  the 
Middle  Ages  the  Irish  continued  to  produce  books,  and 
hundreds  of  Irish  manuscripts,  some  of  them  dating 
back  more  than  a  thousand  years,  may  still  be  seen  in 
Dublin.  The  old  Irish  bards  were  renowned  for  their 
songs,  and  Irish  harpers  for  the  sweetness  of  their  music, 
and  Irish  literature  of  to-day,  also,  is  highly  prized  for 
its  poetic  charm. 

More  than  four  hundred  years  before  Elizabeth's  time 
Ireland  had  been  annexed  to  England,  and  English  earls 
established  on  estates  near  Dublin.  Feudal  dues  were 
demanded  of  Irish  chieftains,  and  from  that  time  the 
English  kings  assumed  the  title  "  Lord  of  Ireland." 
But  the  English  nobles  in  Ireland  were  confined  to  a 
few  counties  around  Dublin  and  the  greater  part  of  the 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  AGE  321 

island  was  entirely  independent  of  English  rule.  Later 
English  kings  made  attempts  from  time  to  time  to  sub- 
jugate the  strong,  daring  chieftains  of  the  Irish  clans 
and  their  bands  of  followers,  but  with  little  success  until 
Henry  VIII  took  the  conquest  in  hand  and  brought 
the  whole  country  under  English  sway. 

After  he  had  conquered  it  he  took  the  title  "  King  of 
Ireland"  and  tried  to  introduce  English  laws,  language, 
and  manners  among  the  people.  The  Irish  did  not  take 
this  attempt  unkindly,  but  when  the  king  tried  to  force 
upon  them  Protestant  forms  of  worship  their  opposition 
was  determined  and  unyielding. 

Elizabeth  had  a  long  struggle  with  them  in  her  reign, 
and  when  they  were  at  last  reduced  to  submission  she 
likewise  undertook  to  force  the  English  laws  and  an  Eng- 
lish system  of  government  upon  them,  but  she  met  with 
little  success.  Her  effort  to  introduce  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion failed  also.  A  fearful  persecution  followed,  but  it 
was  unsuccessful  and  the  great  part  of  the  Irish  people 
have  to  this  day  remained  loyal  to  the  Catholic  faith. 

The  Elizabethan  Age.  The  forty-five  years  during  which 
Queen  Elizabeth  reigned  over  England  are  often  called 
the  Elizabethan  Age,  or  the  Age  of  Elizabeth.  It  was  an 
unusually  long  period  for  a  country  to  remain  under  the 
rule  of  one  person,  and  was  a  time  of  great  prosperity. 

We  have  seen  how  England,  during  this  time,  got  the 
better  of  the  Spanish  enemy  and  began,  through  her 


322      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

great  seamen  and  navigators,  to  take  a  part  in  exploring 
and  in  planning  the  colonization  of  America.  But  these 
adventures  in  the  New  World  were  only  a  small  part 
of  the  activities  that  were  astir  everywhere  throughout 
the  kingdom. 

During  the  long  peace  of  Elizabeth's  reign  the  English 
had  been  able  to  give  time  and  energy  to  improving  their 
manufactures,  farming,  and  commerce,  and  thus  increased 
the  wealth  of  the  country  very  greatly.  This  wealth  in 
turn  was  used  to  improve  their  way  of  living,  especially 
by  the  building  of  more  comfortable  dwellings.  Even 
the  farmers  and  tradesmen  were  now  able  to  have  pleas- 
ant and  attractive  homes,  while  the  houses  of  the  noble- 
men built  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  are  famous  for  their 
stately  beauty. 

A  writer  of  those  times  said  that  he  had  heard  old 
men  speak  of  the  improvement  which  they  had  seen  take 
place  in  England  in  her  reign.  One  change,  they  said, 
was  in  the  great  increase  in  the  number  of  chimneys  built 
in  the  houses,  for  in  their  youthful  days  there  were  few 
to  be  seen.  Another  was  the  improvement  in  sleeping 
arrangements.  In  olden  times  people  had  slept  on  straw 
pallets,  with  a  good  round  log  for  a  pillow,  whereas  now 
both  bed  and  pillows  were  of  feathers.  Pewter  dishes 
and  tin  or  silver  spoons  began  to  be  used  instead  of  the 
old  woodenware.  Forks,  however,  were  not  invented  until 
several  years  after  Elizabeth's  death. 


3^3 


324      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  dress  of  the  nobles  of  that  time  was  particularly 
magnificent.  The  men  dressed  as  elegantly  as  the  women. 
Ruffs  made  of  stiffened  cambric  and  edged  with  jewels 
were  worn  by  both,  and  the  costumes  of  both  were  of 
the  richest  and  finest  silks,  velvets,  and  brocades.   Queen 


Shakspere's  Home 


Elizabeth's  wardrobe  contained  three  thousand  gowns, 
and  the  nobility  were  ready  to  follow  the  fashions  she 
set  as  far  as  they  could. 

Life  was  very  gay,  both  for  the  nobility  and  the  yeo- 
men. The  queen  was  constantly  leaving  London  for  a 
"progress,"  as  it  was  called  —  a  trip  through  the  various 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  AGE  325 

parts  of  her  kingdom.  The  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  her 
court  accompanied  her  in  great  state  on  these  journeys. 
They  were  all  entertained  with  the  utmost  magnificence 
at  this  and  that  castle  or  manor  house  on  the  route,  and 
each  host  tried  to  surpass  the  others  in  the  splendor  of 
the  entertainment  he  provided  for  his  sovereign.  One 
given  by  the  queen's  favorite  courtier,  Robert,  Earl  of 
Leicester,  at  his  castle  at  Kenilworth,  is  described  in 
Sir  Walter  Scott's  novel,  "  Kenilworth." 

The  poorer  people  had  especial  merrymakings  for 
every  one  of  the  many  holidays  occurring  throughout 
the  year  —  on  Christmas,  New  Year's  Day,  Twelfth 
Night,  Easter,  May  Day,  and  Midsummer,  and  many 
others.  All  of  these  were  celebrated  by  dances  and 
ceremonies  that  had  been  handed  down  for  centuries. 

Theaters  were  just  becoming  popular  in  the  days 
of  Elizabeth.  At  first  they  were  not  much  more  than 
fenced-in  yards,  with  a  covered  stage  on  which  the 
play  was  acted.  On  the  stage  were  stools  for  people 
who  could  afford  to  pay  a  shilling  for  their  seats.  The 
rest  paid  their  penny  or  two  and  stood  below  on  the 
ground,  unprotected  by  any  roof.  There  was  no  scenery 
or  curtain,  and  a  printed  placard  announced  the  place 
where  the  scene  was  laid,  as  "  Venice,"  "  Rome,"  etc. 
All  the  women's  parts  were  taken  by  men.  It  was  for 
much  this  sort  of  theater  that  William  Shakspere,  the 
glory  of  the  Elizabethan  Age,  wrote  his  earlier  plays. 


326     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Death  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  In  1603  the  great  queen 
died.  Shakspere  voices  the  feehngs  of  her  people  toward 
her  when,  in  the  play  "  Henry  VIII,"  he  says: 

She  shall  be  loved  and  fear'd :  her  own  shall  bless  her ; 

Her  foes  shake  like  a  field  of  beaten  corn, 

And  hang  their  heads  with  sorrow  :  good  grows  with  her : 

In  her  days  every  man  shall  eat  in  safety, 

Under  his  own  vine,  what  he  plants ;  and  sing 

The  merry  songs  of  peace  to  all  his  neighbors. 

Character  of  the  English  people  in  the  times  of  Queen 
Elizabeth.  The  character  of  the  English  people  had 
changed  greatly  in  the  centuries  that  lie  between  the 
time  of  King  John  and  that  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Long 
before  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  Parliament  had  grown  to 
be  a  very  influential  body.  Knights  and  merchants  had 
become  members  of  it  as  well  as  bishops  and  nobles,  and 
no  king  failed  to  consult  it  before  taking  any  important 
step.  The  serfs  had  gained  their  freedom  and  were  no 
longer  bound  to  the  land.  They  tilled  their  farms  for 
themselves,  buying  them  outright  or  renting  them  from 
the  landlords.  Englishmen  had  in  every  way  grown  more 
independent  and  had  developed  a  strong  love  of  liberty. 
They  now  demanded  freedom  to  think  for  themselves  and 
to  worship  as  they  chose.  In  later  times  many  of  them 
emigrated  to  America  so  that  they  might  have  this  liberty. 
It  was  for  this  reason  that  the  Puritans  and  Quakers  left 
England  and  founded  colonies  in  the  New  World. 


THE  ELIZABETHAN  AGE  327 

Development  of  English  colonies  in  America.  Less  than 
twenty  years  after  the  death  of  Queen  Elizabeth  two 
English  colonies,  Jamestown  and  Plymouth,  had  been  es- 
tablished on  North  American  shores.  A  Spanish  colony 
had  already  grown  up  in  Florida,  and  before  long  a 
Dutch  colony  was  settled  in  New  York  and  a  Swedish 
colony  in  Delaware. 

From  these  small  and  lonely  outposts,  scattered  here 
and  there  in  the  vast  American  wilderness  and  added 
to  by  newcomers  from  Europe  year  by  year,  our  great 
republic  of  the  United  States  has  grown.  Its  inhabitants, 
in  the  three  centuries  that  have  passed  since  the  first 
colonists  arrived,  have  increased  in  numbers  from  a  few 
thousands  to  more  than  ninety  millions,  and  thousands 
of  cities  and  towns  have  grown  up  throughout  its  length 
and  breadth.  The  purpose  of  this  volume  has  been  to 
prepare  the  pupil  to  understand  the  story  of  this  great 
English-speaking  country  of  ours,  which  was  first  settled 
by  the  English  in  1607,  made  itself  independent  of  Eng- 
land in  1776,  and  in  the  century  and  a  half  since  then 
has  taken  its  place  among  the  chief  nations  of  the  world ; 
yet  in  which  so  much  of  old  England  has  remained  that 
the  hope  of  King  George  III,  when  he  acknowledged  the 
independence  of  the  American  colonies,  has  been  fulfilled 
—  the  hope  that  "  religion,  language,  interest,  and  affec- 
tion might  prove  a  bond  of  permanent  union  between 
the  two  countries." 


328     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Questions,  i.  How  long  after  Elizabeth's  death  was  Jamestown 
founded?  2.  How  many  years  elapsed  before  the  first  English  settle- 
ment was  made  in  New  England?  3.  Which  countries  took  the  lead 
in  explorations  and  which  one  has  now  the  greatest  colonies?  4.  Does 
it  seem  to  you  that  many  modern  comforts  were  introduced  in  the  time 
of  Elizabeth? 

References.  Cheyney.  Readings  in  English  History,  pp.  394-401 
(voyages  of  Frobisher  and  Drake);  pp.  1 68-1 71  (old  Irish  stories); 
Old  South  Leaflets,  Vol.  V,  p.  313  (Sir  Francis  Drake  on  the  coast  of 
California);  p.  ^^^  (Frobisher's  first  voyage);  p.  349  (Sir  Humphrey 
Gilbert's  expedition  to  Newfoundland);  p.  381  (Raleigh's  first  Roanoke 
colony) ;  p.  465  (England's  tide  to  North  America ;  written  for  Queen 
Elizabeth). 


CHAPTER   XXII 

DISCOVERIES  AND  INVENTIONS 

Fire  and  light.    Agriculture.    Use  of  metal.    The  alphabet.    The  compass. 
Gunpowder.    The  printing  press 

When  we  compare  the  world  in  which  we  Hve  to-day 
with  the  times  of  Queen  EHzabeth  we  are  struck  with  the 
great  number  of  inventions  that  have  been  made  since 
the  EngHsh  and  other  nations  settled  in  America.  Our 
railroads  and  steamships  and  motor  cars  enable  us  to 
travel  very  quickly  compared  with  the  stagecoaches  of 
Elizabeth's  time.  We  have  electric  lights  and  telephones 
and  phonographs.  With  the  microscope  and  telescope 
scientists  have  been  able  to  discover  all  sorts  of  things 
unknown  to  men  three  or  four  hundred  years  ago.  We 
use  steam  and  electricity  to  run  machinery,  and  with 
the  machinery  we  make  our  clothes  and  often  prepare 
our  food.  All  these  things  have  made  it  possible  to  live 
much  more  comfortably  than  our  ancestors  in  Europe 
lived  in  former  centuries. 

While  all  the  things  we  have  mentioned,  besides  many 
other  inventions,  were  unheard  of  when  American  history 
began,  mankind  had  nevertheless  made  a  great  many 
important  discoveries,  of  which  we  will  mention  a  few. 

329 


330     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Man  had  to  discover  everything  for  himself.  He  had 
to  find  out  that  he  could  pound  with  a  stone  and  sharpen 
a  stick  with  a  shell,  and  later  that  he  could  sharpen  bits 
of  flint  so  that  he  could  use  them  for  knives  to  cut  up 
the  animals  he  wished  to  eat. 

Fire.  One  of  his  very  earliest  and  most  important  dis- 
coveries was  that  fire  would  keep  him  warm  in  cold 
weather  and  that  it  would  cook  the  meat  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  eat  raw,  along  with  berries  and  fruits  and 
edible  roots.  He  must  have  experimented  in  the  first 
place  with  the  fires  kindled  in  the  forests  by  the  light- 
ning or  by  molten  lava  running  out  of  the  crater  of  a 
volcano.  Then  he  learned  to  make  fire  by  rubbing  sticks 
together  and  in  various  other  ways  that  indicate  great 
ingenuity.  From  that  one  discovery  has  come  an  almost 
inconceivable  number  of  benefits  to  the  world,  —  warmth, 
light,  the  employment  of  iron  and  steam  with  all  the  uses 
they  have  been  put  to  for  engines  of  every  sort, —  indeed, 
it  is  impossible  for  us  to  realize  life  without  fire  and  all 
that  it  has  brought  us.  Many  people  of  ancient  times, 
the  Greeks  and  Romans  among  them,  considered  fire 
so  great  a  blessing  that  they  worshiped  the  fireplace  as 
the  shrine  of  a  god. 

At  the  time  when  the  first  colonists  came  to  America 
there  were  no  modern  stoves,  ovens,  or  lamps.  When  the 
hearth  fire  went  out  it  was  a  great  trouble  to  relight  it, 
for  matches  had  not  yet  been  invented  and  fire  had  to 


DISCOVERIES  AND  INVENTIONS  331 

be  brought  fram  a  neighbor's  hearth  or  a  spark  struck 
from  a  tinder  box. 

Light.  Whatever  Hght  our  ancestors  had  was  from  can- 
dles, torches,  or  the  fire  blazing  on  the  hearth,  or  from 
a  sort  of  lamp  made  of  a  cup  of  oil  with  a  strip  of  cloth 
in  it  for  a  wick.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  used  lamps 
like  the  one  in  the  illustration.  It  is  a  long  step  from  the 
dark  houses  and  streets  of  the 
past  to  our  own  brilliantly  lighted 
ones. 

Agriculture.     For   many   thou- 
sands of  years  men  knew  nothing 

(.  .  ,  ,         1 ,  •      , .  Ancient  Roman  Lamp 

01  sowmg  seeds  and  cultivatmg 

the  ground  or  of  keeping  horses  and  cattle.  These  things, 
which  we  call  agriculture,  had  to  be  learned.  At  first 
men  lived  by  hunting.  Gradually  they  learned  how  to 
make  a  rude  plow  to  prepare  the  soil  for  the  seed,  and  a 
wheel  which  would  enable  them  to  roll  things  in  a  cart 
instead  of  carrying  them  on  their  backs  or  the  backs  of 
animals.  They  discovered,  too,  that  dishes  could  be  made 
of  soft  clay  and  then  hardened  in  a  fire,  and  this  led  to 
the  making  of  pottery. 

The  use  of  metal.  Scarcely  five  thousand  years  ago 
men  discovered  that  metal  could  be  used  for  tools  and 
weapons  instead  of  stone.  Copper  and  tin  when  mixed 
make  bronze,  which  is  harder  than  copper,  and  so  bronze 
implements  gradually  came  in  along  with  the  older  ones 


332     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

made  of  flint.  Some  thousand  years  later  iron  was  found 
to  be  still  better.  They  did  not  have  our  kind  of  coal, 
which  has  come  into  use  during  the  last  two  centuries, 
but  used  charcoal  to  soften  the  metals. 

It  would  hardly  be  possible  to  estimate  all  that  we 
owe  to  iron.  Some  one  has  called  it  the  metal  of  civiliza- 
tion, so  important  is  the  part  it  plays  in  our  daily  life. 
Out  of  it  is  made  almost  every  implement  or  machine 
that  we  use,  as  well  as  the  machinery  with  which  the 
factories  are  filled  that  supply  us  with  the  means  of  living. 
It  would  be  an  interesting  question  to  consider  whether 
there  is  anything  which  we  eat,  wear,  or  use  in  any  way 
in  whose  production  iron  has  not  had  a  part. 

The  alphabet.  One  of  the  greatest  inventions  that  we 
owe  to  the  people  of  the  remote  past  is  the  letters  that 
make  up  our  alphabet  —  the  alphabet  that  we  use  so 
continually  and  yet  so  seldom  wonder  how  we  came  by. 

It  would  take  too  long  to  tell  how,  ages  ago,  people 
had  no  alphabet  at  all,  how  they  first  drew  pictures  in 
order  to  express  their  ideas,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case 
of  the  Aztecs,  and  how  they  finally  invented  letters. 
The  Greeks,  very  early  in  their  history,  were  taught  an 
alphabet  by  an  Eastern  people  called  Phoenicians,  who 
got  their  idea  from  the  Egyptians.  The  Greeks  developed 
and  improved  this,  and  their  colonists  carried  it  to  south- 
ern Italy  long  before  the  town  of  Rome  was  heard  of. 
Later,  when  the  Romans  conquered  these  Greek  towns, 


DISCOVERIES  AND  INVENTIONS  333 

they  learned  the  letters  of  the  Greek  alphabet  and  used 
them  to  write  their  own  language.  Through  the  Romans 
this  alphabet,  somewhat  modified,  spread  all  over  Europe, 
and  it  is  the  one  we  use  to-day  as  if  it  had  always  be- 
longed to  us.  It  may  help  us  to  remember  our  debt,  to 
know^  that  the  word  '^  alphabet  "  is  made  from  the  names 
of  the  first  two  Greek  letters.  Alpha  and  Beta,  to  w^hich 
our  capital  letters  A  and  B  correspond.^ 

The  Greeks  and  Romans  possessed  all  the  arts  that 
had  been  discovered  up  to  their  times,  —  agriculture, 
the  use  of  fire  and  of  the  metals,  the  making  of  pottery, 
the  ability  to  spin  with  the  distaff  and  weave  on  a  very 
simple  frame  called  a  loom,  run  by  hand  of  course, — 
but  they  had  little  or  no  machinery  in  our  sense  of  the 
word.  They  had  little  tendency  to  make  new  inventions, 
and  Europe  made  no  progress  in  this  respect  until  the 
thirteenth  century  (six  hundred  years  ago),  when  some 
very  important  things  w^ere  discovered. 

The  compass.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  compass 
first  came  into  general  use  by  Europeans  —  that  little 
instrument  with  its  magnetized  needle  ever  pointing  to 
the  north,  which  enables  sailors  to  direct  their  course  on 
the  sea  when  no  land  is  in  sight  and  no  stars  are  visible 
to  guide  them.    Before  that  time  sailors  never  ventured 

1  The  Roman  capital  letters,  which  we  still  use,  closely  resemble  the  Greek 
capitals,  but  the  small  letters,  which  were  invented  later,  differ  a  good  deal  from 
the  original  forms,  so  that  Latin  and  Greek  books  do  not  look  much  alike  at 
first  glance. 

R 


334     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 

far  from  land.  The  most  daring  voyage  made  without  a 
compass  was  that  which  the  Norsemen  made  to  North 
America.  If  it  had  not  been  for  this  little  guide,  the 
great  exploring  ventures  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  and  the  discoveries  that  came  from  them  would 
have  been  much  longer  in  the  making,  and  Columbus 
himself,  daring  and  courageous  as  he  was,  would  hardly 
have  ventured  out  on  that  wonderful  voyage  that  brought 
him  to  our  shores. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  too,  we  first  find  mention 
of  spectacles.  Paper  also  first  began  to  be  used  then 
in  Europe,  whither  it  had  been  brought  from  China  by 
the  Arabs.  The  figures  that  we  commonly  use  (o,  i,  2,  3, 
4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9),  called  Arabic,  began  to  take  the  place  of 
the  Roman  letters  also  about  this  time. 

Gunpowder.  In  the  fourteenth  century  gunpowder  first 
began  to  come  into  use  in  Europe.  We  do  not  know  who 
first  discovered  that  a  mixture  of  charcoal,  sulphur,  and 
a  white  powder  called  saltpeter  would  explode  if  it  was 
rammed  into  a  tight  place  and  set  on  fire.  It  is  known 
that  the  Chinese  used  it  at  a  very  early  date  to  make 
fireworks  and  cannons,  and  that  it  was  known  in  India 
also.  Perhaps  the  knowledge  of  gunpowder,  like  so  many 
other  things,  came  to  Europeans  from  eastern  Asia. 

But  even  after  Europeans  began  to  make  cannons  it 
took  a  long  time  to  get  enough  of  them  to  be  of  much 
use  in  a  battle.    Men  still  continued  to  rely  on  their  trusty 


DISCOVERIES  AND   INVENTIONS 


OOD 


old  long  bows  and  crossbows,  which  they  found  good 
enough  for  killing  their  enemies  when  they  could  get 
within  reach  of  them.  About  the  time  of  Columbus,  how- 
ever, cannons  and  curious  awkward  guns  which  were  set 
off  with  a  bit  of  lighted  hemp  or  flax  became  so  common 
that  they  displaced  the  bows  and  arrows.  The  knight's 
heavy  armor  that  had 
protected  him  from  the 
enemy's  arrows  was 
not  proof  against  can- 
non balls  and  bullets. 
Even  castle  gates  and 
walls  ceased  to  be  a 
protection,  for  they 
could  easily  be  battered 
down  by  an  enemy  sup- 
plied with  a  few  good 
cannons.  The  nobility, 
therefore,     ceased     to 

build  castles  to  live  in,  and  gradually  gave  up  wearing 
their  clumsy  suits  of  armor. 

The  invention  of  gunpowder  not  only  made  tremen- 
dous changes  in  methods  of  carrying  on  war,  but  has 
been  of  great  service  in  many  w^ays,  especially  in  making 
possible  deep  mining  and  quarrying. 

The  printing  press.  The  first  printing  press  with  mov- 
able types  was  made  in  Europe  about  1450.    The  only 


Early  Caxxon 


33^ 


INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN   HISTORY 


way  to  make  a  book  before  printing  was  invented  was 
to  copy  it  out  by  hand  as  we  have  seen  the  monks  doing 
in  preceding  chapters.  The  copyists  were  able  with  their 
quill  pens  to  make  very  beautiful  little  letters,  so  that 
their  pages  looked  almost  as  even  as  those  of  early  printed 
books.    But  they  were  sure  to  make  some  mistakes  when 


^*^f.        '        :i    !•!>     *■ 


""■^B-" 


From  d  Copley  Print.    Copyright,  1897,  Curtis  and  Cameron 

'iHi:  First  Printing  Press 

(From  the  painting  by  John  \V.  Alexander  in  the  Congressional  Library) 

they  were  careless  or  tired,  and  no  two  hand-copied  books 
were  ever  exactly  alike.  Although  it  cost  a  great  deal 
more  to  print  a  single  copy  of  a  work  than  to  write  it 
out  by  hand,  yet  when  the  type  was  once  ready,  three 
hundred,  or  five  hundred,  or  a  thousand  copies  could  be 
made  for  a  great  deal  less  than  any  one  could  possibly 
write  them  all  out  by  hand.   Moreover,  no  one  of  all  these 


DISCOVERIES  Ax\D   INVENTIONS  Zo7 

copies  would  have  any  mistakes  in  it,  if  the  type  had  been 
correctly  set  up. 

In  the  centuries  that  have  passed  since  the  invention 
of  the  printing  press  its  powers  have  been  immeasurably 
increased.    Instead  of  the  old  wooden  affair  run  by  hand, 
it  has  grown  to  be 
a    magical    machine 
—  printing,  cutting, 
folding,   and    count- 
ing sixteen  hundred  ^B^^l  /  I 
newspapers    a    min- 
ute.    Fifty  miles  of 
paper       can       pass 
through      it      every 
hour,  and   so  deftly 
and  perfectly  do  all 
parts  of  the  machine 
work,    and    so    fast 
do  the  sheets  hurry 
through  it,  that  only                       ^arly  Prixtinx;  Press 
one  fifth  of  a  second 

is   required   to  print   a  page.     Yet  the  paper  is  almost 
never  torn  or  crushed. 

The  benefits  that  have  come  to  the  world  from  the 
printing  press  are  beyond  our  powers  to  reckon.  The 
finest  part  of  our  civilization  rests  upon  the  art  of  print- 
ing.   Our  education  depends  upon  it.    By  means  of  it  the 


338     INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

treasures  of  great  writers,  historians,  scientists,  poets,  and 
artists  are  put  into  our  hands  and  the  daily  news  of  the 
world  is  brought  to  us.  Best  of  all,  it  has  placed  all  these 
benefits  within  the  reach  of  every  one  of  us. 

Questions,  l.  Do  you  know  how  savages  to-day  make  their  fires  ? 
2.  What  is  a  tinder  box  ?  What  is  charcoal  ?  3.  How  do  you  suppose  the 
first  plow  was  fashioned  ?  4.  Mention  all  the  uses  of  iron  that  you  can 
think  of.  5.  Why  would  it  be  easier  for  sailors  to  find  their  way  from 
Norway  to  Labrador  without  a  compass  than  from  Spain  to  Cuba  ?  6.  Do 
you  know  whether  oV  not  all  type  is  set  up  by  hand  nowadays  ?  7.  How 
many  kinds  of  type  were  used  in  setting  up  this  page  ? 

References.  Mowry.  American  Inventions  and  Inventors.  Burns. 
The  Story  of  Great  Inventions. 


INDEX  AND  PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


Pronounce  a  as  m  face  \  a  as  in  surface:  a  as  in  fact ;  a  as  in  affect;  a  as  \nfir;  a  as  in 

after;  a  as  in  afire. 
e  as  in  <^^ :  e  as  in  begin ;  e  as  in  I>cg- ;  ^  as  in  adornment ;  e  as  in  baker, 
1  as  \Vifinc  ;  i  as  mfijt. 
6  as  in  bone  ;  6  as  in  obey  ;  6  as  in  border :  o  as  in  bonnet ;  J  as  in  connect ;  oi  as  in  boil ; 

00  as  in  boot ;  66  as  in  book  ;  ou  as  in  bound. 
u  as  in  muse  ;  u  as  in  )nusicia)i ;  li  as  in  murky  ;  u  as  in  must ;  u  as  in  circus. 
ch  as  in  chair  \  g  as  in  ^''t'^? ;  i]  like  n  in  ink  :  th  as  in  t/iin ;  th  as  in  t/uyi  ;  zh  like  z  in  azure. 


Abbeys,  202  (note).  See  also  Monasteries 
Abbot  (ab'wt),  i86  (note),  202 
Acre  (a'ker),  156 
Acropolis  (d-krop'6-lis),  45 
Adrianople    (ad-ri-dn-o'p'l),   battle    of, 

82-84 
Agriculture,  331 
Agrigentum  (ag-ri-jen'tfan),  37 
Alaric  (ard-rik),  the  Goth,  84-85 
Alexander    (al-eg-zan'der)    the    Great, 

53-55 

Alexandria  (al-eg-zan'dri-d),  52,  55 

Alfred  (jirfred)  the  Great,  fights  with 
Danes,  108;  love  of  learning,  109- 
III  ;  the  "Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle" 
begun  by,  iii  ;   death  of,  113 

Alva  (al'vd),  Duke  of,  302 

America  (rt-nierl-ka),  discovery  of,  231 ; 
naming  of,  259;  colonies  in,  327 

Amsterdam  (am'ster-dam),3oi 

Andes  (au'dez),  263 

Angles  (aq'g'lz),  79,  88-91 

"  Anglo-Saxon  (ar)'gl6-sak'sun)  Chron- 
icle," I II,  138,  141 

Antwerp  (ant'werp),  301 

Apollo  («-poro),  44 

Arabic  (ar'd-bik)  numerals,  334 

Archbishops,  195-197 

Aristotle  (ar'Ts-tof  1),  49,  53 


Armada  (ar-ma'dd),  the  Invincible, 304- 

307 
Arthur  (ar'thilr),  King,  and  the  Round 

Table,  88 
Ascham  (as'kdm),  Roger  (roj'er),  293 
Asser  (as'er),  109 
Athena  (d-the'nd),  44,  49 
Athens  (ath'enz),  41,  42 
Augustine  (6-gus'tin),  96-99 
Augustus  (6-gus'tMs)  Caesar  (se'zdr),  or 

Octavius  (6k-ta'vi-i^s),  35-37 
Aztecs  (az'teks),  254-258 

Bahama  (bd-ha'md)  Islands,  231 

Balboa  (bal-bo'a),  260-262 

Bayard  (ba-yar').  Chevalier  (she-val-ya'), 

271-272 
Bayeux  (ba-yfi')  tapestry,  140 
Bede  (bed),  89-91,  99,  101-103 
Bishops,  180,  181,  184,  196,  197,  200 
Black  Friars  (frferz),  see  Dominicans 
Boadicea  (bo-d-di-se'd),  60,  61 
British  (brit'ish)  Isles  (ilz),  9 
Britons   (brit'i^nz),   early,    17-20;    and 

Caesar,  20-22 
Bronze,  first  use  of,  16-17,  33 1 
Bruges  (broo'jez),  301 
Brussels  (brus'elz),  301 
Bucephalus  (bu-sef'd-hls),  53,  54 


39 


340      INTRODLXTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


Byzantium  (lu-zan^shi-rnii)  (Constanti- 
nople),  52 

Cabot  (kab'ilt),  John,  233-235,  310 

Caesar  (se'zdr),  Julius  (jooryT/s),  in- 
vades Britain  (brif'n),  20-22  ;  in 
Rome,  33-35 ;  and  the  Germans, 
79,  Si 

Calicut  (kal'T-kut),  238,  240 

California  (kal-i-for'nw/),  268,  317 

Canada  (kau'd-dd),  282,  283 

Cannons,  334,  335 

Canterbury  (kan'ter-ber-i),  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  times,  98;  archbishop  of,  197 

Canute  (kd-nuf),  124,  127,  128 

Caractacus  (kd-rak'td-kus),  60-62 

Carthage  (kar'thaj),  26-30 

Cartier  (kar-ty;V),  Jacques  (zhak),  276 

Castles,  in  the  time  of  William  the  Con- 
queror, 136-138;  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  184-188  ;   decay  of,  335 

Cathay  (kd-tha'),  or  China,  222 

Cathedrals,  197-202 

Cecil  (ses'Tl),  Sir  William  (Lord  l^ur- 
leigh  (bCir'li)),  293 

Champlain  (shaui-plan'),  284 

Charlemagne  (shar'le-nian),  104-107 

Charles  (charlz)  V,  and  Magellan,  243  ; 
and  Cortes,  252;  domain  of,  270; 
father  of  Philip  II,  299 

China  (chfnd),  or  Cathay  (kd-tlia'),  de- 
scribed by  Marco  Bolo,  225 

Chivalry,  192 

Christianity,  beginnings  of,  93-95 

Church,  Roman,  95  ;  in  feudal  times, 
147;  power  of,  194-195;  learning  of, 
195;  organization  of,  195-197;  in 
time  of  Henry  \'III,  288-290;  in 
time  of  Elizabeth,  294 

Claudius  (kl6'di-(<.s),  Emperor,  59 

Cloisters,  204 

Clovis  (klo'vfe),  74,  104 

Coat  of  arms,  163 

Coligny  (ko-leii'ye).  Admiral,  277 

Colorado  (kol-o-ra'do)  River,  265 

Colosseum  (kol-o-seTnn),  68 

Columbus  (ko-lum'bi/s),  228-233 

Compass,  333 

Constantine    (koii'stdii-thi),    Emperor, 

85 


Constantinople  (koii-stan-tT-ntVp'l), 
founded,  85  ;  visited  by  Crusaders, 
151,   152;  captured  by  Turks,  235 

Copenhagen  (kd-pen-ha'gen),  118 

Copper,  331 

Corinth  (kor'inth),  38,  40 

Coronado  (ko-ro-na'tlio),  264-266 

Cortes  (kor-tas'),  Hernando  (Her-iuin'- 
dd),  251-255;  and  Montezuma,  255- 
257;  takes  City  of  Mexico,  257, 
258 

Crossbows,  335 

Crusades,  First  Crusade,  149-153; 
Second  Crusade,  154;  Third  Cru- 
sade,  154-158;  results  of,   159,   160 

Cuba  (kfri)d),  231 

Curfew,  140 

Da    Cama    (dagji'ma),    finds    way    to 

India    by    sea,    236-239 ;    results    of 

his  discovery,   239,   240 
Danes    (danz),   or    Vikings    (vrkings), 

108,   III,   1 15-128 
Declaration  of  Independence,  2 
Denmark  (den'niark),  108,  115,  117 
De  Soto  (deso'td),  Ferdinand  (fur'dT- 

nand),  259,  260 
Diaz  (de'ath),  Bartholomeu  (bjir-td-lo- 

iiia'oo).   discoverer   of  the   Cape   of 

Good  Hope,  227-228,  237 
Diaz  (de'ath),    Bernal   (ber-iial'),   with 

Cortes,  252 
Dominican  (do-iiun'i-kdn)   Friars  (frf- 

erz),  or  Black  Friars,  210-212 
Doomsday  Book,  138-139 
Drake    (drak),    Sir    Francis,   304,  305, 

306,  307,_3[5-3i8 
Druids  (droo'idz),  19-20 

Einhard  (Tn'hart),  105 

Elizabeth  (e-liz'd-beth),  288;  described, 

290-294;  and  Protestantism,  294;  and 

Mary  Stuart  (stfi'drt),  295-297  ;  and 

the  Netherlands,  302  ;    and  Ireland, 

320-321  ;   death  of,  326 
Elizabethan  (e-liz-d-be'thdn;  ^v,  e-lTz'd- 

beth-dn)  Age,  321-325 
England  (iij'gldnd),  size  of,  8-9;  climate 

of,  9  ;  appearance  of,  9-1 2  ;  derivation 

of  name,  97 


INDEX 


.41 


Ethelbert  (eth'el-bilrt),  King  of  Kent, 

97-99 
Excommunication  of  King  John,  168 

Fairs,  219-221 

Ferdinand  (fur'di-iiand)  of  Spain,  229- 

232,  239,  243 
Feudalism,  145-147 
Fief,  145 
Fire,  330 

Fist  hatchets  of  Stone- Age  men,  14 
Flanders  (flau'derz),  301 
FHnt,  13-14,  330 
Florida  (lior'i-chY),  313,  327 
France  (frans),  derivation  of  name.  S(') 
Francis  (fran^^Is)  I,  king  of  France.  271 
Franciscans    (fran-sis'kanz),    or    Gray 

Friars  (frrgrz),  194-196 
Frederick    Barbarossa    (fred'er-ik  hiir- 

bd-ros'^c),  140 
French  (freuch)  in  America,  270-286 
French  language  in  l^ngland,  128 
Friars   (fiTerz),    Dominican,    210-212; 

Franciscan,     210-212;       mendicant. 

210-212 
Frobisher  (frol/ish-r'r),  306,  309 
Frontenac  (froii'te-nak),  282 

Gargoyles,  200,  202 

Gaul  (gol),  20;   called  Frankland,  86 

Genoa  (jen'6-rl'),  229,  241 

Germania  (jer-nia'ni-a),  79 

Germans  (jur'inciiiz),  early,  described. 
79-81  ;  make  their  way  into  the  Ro- 
man Empire,  81-86;  in  England. 
88-91 

Germany  (jftr'ma-nl),  270  (note) 

Ghent  (gent),  301 

Gilbert  (girbert).  Sir  Humphrey  (huin'- 
fri),  309,  319  _ 

Godfrey  (god'fn)  of  Bouillon  (hoo-yoN'. 
French  nasal  n),  151,  153 

Golden  Hind,  316  (note  2),  317-318 

Good  Hope,  Cape  of,  228,  229,  237, 
250 

Gothic  (gotli'ik)  architecture,  200 

Goths  (goths).  79,  83-85 

Gray  Friars  (fri'erz),  see  Franciscans 

Great  Council,  see  Parliament  and 
Witenagemot 


Greece  (gres)  made  a  Roman  province, 

38  ;  appearance  of,  40 
Greek  (grek)  alphabet.  332-333 
Greek  architecture,  45-48 
Greek  colonies,  51,  52 
Greek  columns,  styles  of,  42-44 
Greek  education,  42-44 
Greek  festivals,  41 
Greek  wars  with  Persia,  41,  42 
Greeks  (greks),  37-46 
Greeks,    influence    of,    37-40,    :^7,    vS ; 

famous,  49 
Greenland  (grenlrnul).  125 
Gregory  (greg'o-ri)  the  (ireat,  96 
Guilds,  216-218 

Guinea  (gin'i),  312  ;   Gulf  of.  237 
Gunpowder,  early  use  of.  334-335 

Haarlem  (har'h^m).  301 

Hadrian  (ha'dri-aii).  wall  of,  65 

Haiti  (ha'ti),  231,  260 

Hall,  see  Manor  house 

Hannibal  (han''i-brd),  27-29 

Harold  (liilrYdd),  130-132 

Hastings  (has'tingz).  battle  of,  132 

Hawking,  189 

Hawkins  (lio'kinz),   Sir  Jolm,  306,  309, 

310-314 
Hellas  (heP^^.s)  (Greece),  40 
Hengist(liei]'glst)  and  Horsa  (li6r'sr?).9o 
Hennepin  (lien'e-]nn),  Father.  282 
Henry    (lieu'ri)    \'1II,     2S8-290 ;     and 

Ireland,  321 
Henry  the  Navigator,  226.  227 
Hispaniola  (liTs-pan-yo'l,'/).  260,  262 
Holland    (lioPrnid),    300-303.       See  also 

Netherlands 
Holy  Land,  148 
Plomage,  145-146 
Homer  (ho'mev),  43 
Huguenots  (hu'ge-not.s),  277,  278,  308 
Huns  (hfinz).  83 

Ice  Age,  14-15 
Iceland  (Is'land),  125 
Illinois  (il-i-noi'),  282 
Immigrants,  first  arrival  of,  in  America, 
1-3  ;   arrival  of,  in  modern  times,  4-6 
Imperator  (ini-i)e-ra/tdr),  35 
Inca  (ii)'kr?),  263.  264 


342      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


India  (iii'di-d),  Alexander  the  Great  in, 
54 ;  Columbus  tries  to  discover,  230- 
231;  Vasco  da  Gama discovers,  236-240 

Indians  (in'di-anz),  i,  231 

Innocent  (in'o-sent)  III,  and  King  John, 
165-169;  and  the  friars,  210 

Interdict,  167-168 

Inventions,  329-338 

Ireland  (irland),  9,  320-321 

Iron,  use  of,  17,  332 

Isabella  (iz-ci-heVd),  229-232,  239,  243 

Jamestown  (jamz'toun),  2,  327 

Japan  (jd-pan'),  226 

Java  (ja'vd),  226 

Jerusalem  (je-roo'sd-lem),  148-1 50, 1 52- 

153. 
Jews  (juz),  169-170 
Joan  (jon)  of  Arc,  272-276 
John  (jon),  king  of  England,  165  ;    and 

Innocent  III,  166-169;    and  Magna 

Charta,  170-172 
Joliet  (jo'li-et),  280 
Jutes  (joots),  88 

Kansas  (kan'zds),  266 

Kenilworth  (ken'il-wurth),  285,  325 

Kent  (kent),  97 

Knights,  146,  160;  training  of,  160-161  ; 

armor  of,    162-163;    in    the    Middle 

Ages,   190-192 
Kublai  Khan  (koo'bli  khan'),  223 

Lachine  (la-shen^),  derivation  of  name 

of,  276 
Ladrones     (la-dro'nas ;      English,     \d- 

dronz'),  247 
Lamps,  Roman,  331 
Langton  (lang'tun),  Stephen  (ste'v'n), 

166,  171 
La  Salle  (la  saF),  280-284 
Latin  (lat'in)  language,  use  of,  103,  iio- 

III 
Leonidas  (le-6n'i-dds),  41 
Ley  den  (li'den),  301 
Light,  331 

London  (lun'dwn)  in  Middle  Ages,  213 
Long  bows,  335 
Luther  (loo'ther),  Martin  (mar'tin),  277, 

290,  301 


Macedonia  (mas-e-do'm-d),  43 

Magellan  (md-jerdn),  Ferdinand  (fur'- 
di-nand),  242-246 ;  discovers  the 
strait,  246 ;  sails  over  the  Pacific, 
246-247  ;  death  of,  247-248 

Magellan,  Strait  of,  246,  316 

Magna  Charta  (mag'nd  kar'td),  win- 
ning of,   1 71-172;    articles  of,   172- 

174 
Magna  Graecia  (mag'nd  gre'shi-d),  52 
Manners  in  the  Middle  Ages,  188 
Manor,  or  vill,  178-179 
Manor  house,  178 
Manuscript  books,  205-206 
Marathon  (niar'd-thon),  battle  of,  41 
Marignano    (ma-ren-ya'no),    battle    of, 

272 
Markets,  219 

Marquette  (mar-kef),  Father,  280 
Marseilles  (mar-salz'),  52 
Mary   Tudor   (ma'ri  tu'dor),  daughter 

of  Henry  VIII,  290 
Melinde  (ma-len'da),  237 
Merchants  of  the   Middle  Ages,  215- 

216 
Metals,  use  of,  16-17,  331-332 
Mexico  (mek'si-ko),  252 
Mexico  City,  255-258;  fall  of,  258 
Michigan  (mish'i-gdn),  282 
Miltiades  (mil-ti'd-dez),  41 
Missions  in  California,  267-269 
Mississippi  (mis-i-sip'I)  River,  280-283 
Mohammedans  (mo-ham'ed-dnz),   105, 

148,  159     ^ 
Moluccas  (mo-luk'dz),  see  Spice  Islands 
Monasteries,  founding  of,  99-101  ;  de- 
scription   of,    202-205 ;    suppression 

of,  289 
Monks,  life  of,  102-103,  207-208 
Montezuma  (mon-te-zoo'md),  255-257 

Netherlands  (neth'er-ldndz),  300,  301  ; 

revolt  of,  301-303 
New  Forest,  140 
"New  World"    (America),    259,    304; 

France  and,  276-286 
Newfoundland  (nu'fwnd-land),  319 
Norman    (nOr'mdn)   architecture,    144, 

200 
Normandy  (nor'mdn-di),  129 


INDEX 


343 


Normans  (nor'manz),  in  France,  129; 

in  England,  132-135,  143-144 
Northmen  (north'men),  see  Vikings 
Northumbria  (nor-thum'bii-d),  97 
Norway  (nor'wa),  108,  115,  117 
Nova  Scotia  (no'vd  sko'shyd),  278 

Octavius  (ok-ta'vi-Ms),  35-37 
Olympia  (o-lim'pi-d),  44 
Orleans  (or-la-aN^,  French  nasal  n),  275 
Outlaws,  183-184 

Pacific    Ocean    (pd-sif  ik  o'shdn),   246, 

315;  Balboa  discovers,  260-262 
Page,  training  of,  161 
Panama  (pan-d-mii'),  260,  261 
Paper,  75,  334 
Papyrus  (pci-prrfc),  75 
Parliament  (parli-ment),  141,  326 
Parthenon  (par'the-non),  45,  46 
Patagonia  (pat-d-go'ni-d),  245 
Pelican  (peri-kdn),  316 
Pericles  (per'i-klez),  49 
Persia  (pur''shd),  41,  42,  54 
Peru  (pe-roo'),  262-264,  315 
Peter    (pe'ter)    the    Hermit    (hftr'mit), 

1 50-1 5 1 
Phidippides  (phl-dip'i-dez),  41 
Philip  Augustus  (fil'ip  o-gus'tils),  156 
Philip  (fiPip)  II  of  Spain  (span),  295, 

297  ;  and  the  Netherlands,  299-303  ; 

and  England,  303-308 
Philip,  king  of  Macedonia,  53 
Philippine  (firi-pni)  Islands,  247 
Phoenicians  (fe-nish'dnz),  332 
Picts  (pikts),  88 
Pigafetta  (pe-ga-fet'ta),  244 
Pilgrims,  mediaeval,  148 
Pizarro  (pi-zar'ro),  262-264 
Plato  (pla'to),  49 
Plow,  331 
Plymouth  (plim'wth),  in  America,  327  ; 

in  England,  306,  310 
Polo  (po'lo),  Marco  (mar'ko),  222-225; 

book  of,  225-226 
Pope,   95 ;    head    of   English    Church, 

195;  and  Henry  VIII,  288-289;  and 

Mary,  290  ;  and  Elizabeth,  294 
Portugal  (por'tu-gdl),  240,  251 
Potato,  introduction  of,  319 


Pottery,  331 

Priests,  195-197 
Printing,  invention  of,  335-338 
Protestant  revolt,  277,  290 
Puritans  (pu^ri-tdnz),  294,  326 

Quadrangle,  204 
Quakers  (kwak'erz),  326 
Quebec  (kwe-bek'),  276,  277,  284 

Raleigh    (ro'li),    Sir   Walter   (wOrter),, 

309,  318-319 
Revolutionary  War,  2 
Richard  (rich'drd)  I  (the  Lion-Hearted) 

and  the  Crusades,  154-159 
Robin  Hood  (rob'in  hood),  183  (note) 
Roland  (ro'ldnd),  105 
Rolf  (rolf),  or  Rollo  (rolT)),  129 
Roman  (ro'nidn)  amphitheaters,  67,  68 
Roman  aqueducts,  65-67 
Roman  army,  31-33 
Roman  books,  74,  75 
Roman   Empire,   established,   35 ;   two 

capitals    of,    and    Western    Roman 

Empire,  85  ;  break-up  of,  86 
Roman  government  in  Britain  (brif'n),, 

62-63 
Roman  houses,  68-72 
Roman  language  and  laws,  remains  of, 

87-88 
Roman    remains    in    Britain    (brif'n), 

65-73 

Roman  roads,  63-65 

Roman  "  triumph,"  32-33 

Romanizing  of  Britain  (brif'n),  77 

Romans  (ro'nidnz),  character  of,  24 ; 
early  life  of,  25 

Rome  (rom),  beginnings  of,  23  ;  legends 
of,  24-25;  provinces  of,  30;  early 
government  of,  30-31  ;  conquers 
Greece,  38 ;  conquers  Britain  (brif'n), 
59-60 

Rotterdam  (rot'er-dam),  301 

Runes  (roonz),  118-119 

Runnymede  (riinl-med),  172 

Sagas  (sa'gdz),  1 19-120 
St.  Anthony  (sant  an'to-ni),  99 
St.   Augustine    (sant   6'giis-ten),    Fort,, 
founding  of,  278 


344      INTRODUCTION  TO  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


St.    Benedict    (sant    ben'e-clikt),    loo, 

208;  rule  of,  loo-ioi 
St.  Dominic  (sant  dom'i-mk),  210 
St.    Francis    (sant    fran'sis)    of   Assisi 

(as-se'ze),     209-210;     order    of,     in 

California,   268 
St.  Peter,  shrine  of,  148  (note) 
Saladin  (sara-din),  154,  155,  158 
Saladin  tax,  155 

Salamis  (sara-mis),  battle  of,  42 
Saracens  (sarM-senz),  154 
Saxons  (sak'swnz),  79,  88,  90-91 
Scotland  (skot'kmd),  9 
Scots  (skots),  88 

Scriptorium  (skrip-to'ri-r«n),  204,  205 
Serfs  or  villeins  (virinz),  179-180;  life 

of,  1S1-184,  326 
Seville  (sev'il),  244,  250 
Shakspere  (skak'sper),  325-326 
Sicily  (sis'i-lT),  27 
Sidney  (si(rni),  Sir  Philip  (fiPip),  302- 

Skald  (skold),  122,  123 

Slave  trade,  312 

Socrates  (sok'ni-tez),  49-51 

South  Sea,  316  (note) 

Spain  (span),  251,  266,   304-305,    308, 

309,  310 
Spanish  Armada,  see  Armada 
Spanish    (span'ish)    Main    (man),    316 

(note   i) 
Sparta  (spiir'tf'O,  41,  44 
Spectacles,  334 
Spice  Islands,  or  Moluccas  (mo-luk'(?z), 

226,  233,  242 
Spices,  235-236 
Squire,  training  of,  161 
Stone  Age,  13-16 
Stonehenge  (ston'henj),  16 
Sweden  (swe'den),  108,  115,  117 
Syracuse  (sir'd-kus),  37,  52 

Tabard  (tab'drd),  163 
Themistocles  (the-mis'to-klez),  42 
Thermopylae  (ther-niop'i-le),  41 
Tobacco,  313,  319 


Tonty  (ton'te),  282 

Tournaments,  190-192 

Towns  in  England  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
213-215;  importance  of,  221 

Turks,  148,  153;  capture  Constanti- 
nople, 235 

United  States,  republic  of,  established, 
3  ;  immigrants  to,  3-6 ;  resemblance 
to  England,  6-8  ;  growth  of,  327 

Urban  (fir'bdn)  II,  149-150 

Vassals,  145-147 

Venice  (ven'is),  241 

Vespucci  (ves-poot'che),  Amerigo 
(a-nia-re'go),  258-259 

Victoria  (vik-to'ri-d),  Magellan's  ship, 
250 

Vikings  (vrkings),  or  Danes  (dfinz).  or 
Northmen  (n6rth''nirn),  115-117;  in- 
vade England,  108-109,  126-127; 
relics  of,  117-118;  ships  and  voyages 
of,  123-126;  and  America,  109-110 

Vill,  see  Manor 

Villeins  (viPinz),  see  Serfs 

Virginia  (ver-jin'i-a),  319 

Wales  (walz),  9 

West  Indies  (in'diz),  312 

William  (wiPyuni)  the  Conqueror,  129- 

130;     invades     England,      131-135; 

government  of,    135-136;    character 

of,   141-142 
William  the   Silent,  Prince  of  Orange 

(or'enj),  302-303 
Wisconsin  (wis-kon'sin),  282 
Witenagemot    (wit'e-nd-ge-mot),    134, 

141 

Xerxes  (zurk'sez),  41 

York  (york),  197 

Zeus  (ziis).  44 

Zuiii  (zoo'nye)  Indians,  264 


ANNOUNCEMENTS 


FROM  TRAIL  TO   RAILWAY 
THROUGH    THE    APPALACHIANS 

By  ALBERT  PERRY  BRIGHAM 

Professor  of  Geology  in  Colgate  University,  Hamilton,  N.Y. 


I2mo,  cloth,  1 88  pages,  with  maps  and  illustrations, 
60  cents 


THIS  volume  is  designed  to  aid  the  study  of  American  history 
and  geography  in  the  upper  grades  of  grammar  and  first  year 
of  high  schools.  It  gives  the  story  of  the  great  roads  across  the 
Appalachians,  telling  where  they  are,  why  they  run  as  they  do, 
and  what  their  history  has  "been.  The  evolution  from  Indian 
trails  to  modern  rapid  transit  is  studied  in  the  Berkshires,  along 
the  Hudson  and  Mohawk,  across  the  uplands  from  Philadelphia 
and  Baltimore,  and  through  the  Great  Valley  to  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky. 

The  book  shows  how  the  waves  of  migration  swept  through  the 
passes  from  the  seaboard  to  the  country  west  of  the  mountains, 
and  the  essential  physiographic  features  of  the  eastern  United 
States  are  worked  in  as  a  part  of  the  narrative. 


William  M.  Davis,  Professor  of  Geology,  Harvard  University, 
Cambridge,  Mass. :  Brigham's  From  Trail  to  Railway  is  a  service- 
able example  of  a  class  of  books  that  I  hope  to  see  increase  in 
number. 

Amos  W.  Farnham,  Sfate  Normal  School,  Oswego,  N.Y. :  From 
Trail  to  Railway  is  written  in  Professor  Brigham's  clear  and  strong 
way  of  saying  things,  and  any  one  who  knows  the  man  can  feel  him 
as  he  reads  if  he  cannot  see  him.  The  style  is  well  suited  to  the 
grades  for  which  the  book  is  written,  and  the  story  of  pioneer  life 
is  one  to  engage  the  interest  of  history  and  geography  pupils  alike. 


GINN  AND   COMPANY   Publishers 


READING   BOOKS 

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AMERICAN   HISTORY 


Blaisdell :   Story  of  American  History :>o.72 

Blaisdell  and  Ball:  Hero  Stories  from  American  History  .60 
Blaisdell  and  Ball:  Short  Stories  from  American  History  .48 
Brigham  :   Geographic  Influences  in  American  History   .      1.48 

Catherwood  :   Heroes  of  the  Middle  West 60 

Collins:   History  of  Vermont i.oo 

Davis  :   Under  Six  Flags.    The  Story  of  Texas 60 

Faris  :   Makers  of  Our  History 80 

Faris  :  Real  Stories  from  Our  History 72 

Fassett :   Colonial  Life  in  New  Hampshire 72 

Fiske :   How  the  United  States  became  a  Nation  .     .     .        .60 

Fiske-Irving  :  Washington  and  his  Country 72 

Franklin  :  Autobiography 48 

Hitchcock:  The  Louisiana  Purchase 72 

Lane  and  Hill :  American  History  in  Literature    .     .      .        .60 

Lawler  :  Columbus  and  Magellan 48 

Montgomery:   Heroic  Ballads -.60 

Moore -Tiffany :   From  Colony  to  Commonwealth       .      .        .72 

Moore-Tiffany:  Pilgrims  and  Puritans 72 

Williams  :   Some  Successful  Americans 60 


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